Seeds & Services

Rijk Zwaan offers professional growers a wide range of top varieties in the form of seed. But Rijk Zwaan offers growers more than seed alone. Rijk Zwaan also distinguishes itself to a high degree with its innovative services. With this integral Seeds & Services package Rijk Zwaan is an extremely interesting partner in the international food-producing chain.



Seeds & Services includes:
· Wide range of top varieties
· Crop guidance and crop data recording
· Point-of-sale checks
· Chain management
· 4-seasons concepts

Providing services is becoming ever more important. Increases in scale of production nurseries are continuing, with managers needing more and more good information about growing techniques and sales. Further down the chain, a supermarket is looking for products which are available year-round, of excellent quality and offer logistical advantages. With its good varieties and providing its unique services, Rijk Zwaan can meet all these wishes.

Increasing demands
Developing good varieties comes first. Rijk Zwaan, as an innovative enterprise, is at the forefront of this. Market demands are increasing all the time. In order to meet these demands, Rijk Zwaan reacts by breeding varieties with more resistances and an even better flavour. Rijk Zwaan has also held the EKO certificate for a number of years now and can offer a complete range of organic seed.

Niche markets
As well as forever looking to improve the present range, Rijk Zwaan also seeks out niches in the market. Together with customers, new products or product concepts are created. Rijk Zwaan’s own genetic material still holds innumerable possibilities. Because Rijk Zwaan employees worldwide exchange their knowledge of varieties, it creates new ideas. The contacts Rijk Zwaan has with growers, supermarkets, processors and other chain partners are of essential importance.

Five types of service
The services Rijk Zwaan offers its customers give added value to the varieties. These services include five elements:

1. Crop guidance means that crop advisors regularly visit growers to look at the condition of varieties. They give tips and advice and by effective exchange of knowledge determine how new varieties can best be grown. The combination of top growers and advice from Rijk Zwaan ensures that products are uniform and of high quality. This is highly important further down the chain.

2. At the request of growers or growers’ groups, Rijk Zwaan employees carry out crop data recording. They keep meticulous records which are fed back to the growers. Comparisons of figures can very easily be made this way. Supermarkets further down the chain benefit from these accurate crop records. Quality and uniformity are encouraged by recording crop details.

3. When making point-of-sale checks, Rijk Zwaan employees record how products are performing in supermarkets and distribution centres. This information is fed back to merchants, breeders and growers, but is also discussed regularly with supermarket managers, who can use the information to their advantage.

4. When we talk about chain management we mean organising the collaborative activities in the chain. Rijk Zwaan employs chain managers who maintain contact with merchants, supermarkets and the processing industry. Chain managers gauge customers’ needs, forge contacts between chain partners and give feedback to growers and breeders.

5. The last element is the 4-seasons concepts: Rijk Zwaan ensures that supermarket chains can expect products of the same quality all through the year. Melons are a very good example of this. For nine months of the year Spain supplies melons, but in the winter months, growers in Central America fill the gap. Rijk Zwaan makes sure that suitable varieties are grown and establishes contact between the main chain partners.