A complicated crop

Producing good, reliable seed is a complicated process. The basis for the seeds are the parents of the new variety. They have to be crossed in their pure state, without any ‘foreign’ pollen coming near. Depending on the crop, crossing is carried out by flies, bumblebees or bees. Glasshouses can have screens installed which prevent unwanted insects and/or pollen from entering. Very large quantities of seed, such as spinach seed for instance, are grown outdoors. The choice of location is extremely important here: it has to be sufficiently isolated to virtually guarantee that no ‘foreign’ pollen will pollute pollination.

Cost and return
Cost of and returns from one tomato seed: A grower pays € 0.14 for one seed. This grows into a 12 – 15 m tall plant. One seed yields 18 kg tomatoes. The grower’s price per kilo tomato seed is € 35,168. One kilo of tomato seed gives the grower a return of approximately € 3,970,577. For the supermarket, one kilo tomato seed represents a return of more than € 9 million.

Great care
It goes without saying that a seed producer has to conduct the growing of his crop with the greatest care. An insect attack or an infection by disease can be catastrophic for a crop. Bad development of the crop can reduce the amount of harvested seed to a minimum and have an adverse effect on quality.
Each crop is continually monitored by specialist production staff of Rijk Zwaan and their skills contribute very considerably to the good quality of our seed.