The goal of our breeding activity is to provide:
All European farmers with the most adapted maize hybrid varieties to their:
European industry with the most adapted varieties to their different processes: dry milling (grits, corn flakes), wet milling (special starches), ethanol, biogas, oil, biodegradable plastics.
The result of this activity is a portfolio of about 100 varieties adapted to the multiple environments, stresses, diseases, insects pressure of the 18 Millions Ha of maize grown in Europe (25 EU countries Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Russia, Croatia, Bulgaria).
These varieties are constantly renewed by the launch of about 20 new highly competitive hybrids each year.
The biodiversity of these varieties is very high and constantly improved by new introgressions. Our breeding projects include germplasm sources from our entire global breeding stations network in Northern and Southern America, South Africa, Asia. Also, the European landraces and the elite lines derived from them, contribute largely to the adaptation and performance of our early hybrids.
The European structure integrates conventional breeding and new technologies:
6 breeding programs are settled in 6 stations: from North to South
Each breeding program is dedicated to a specific maturity and geographic area, but experiments intensively the hybrids created by the other European programs and by our Canadian and US stations.
The hybrids created are then tested in a very large European Evaluation network of more than 150 locations covering all main environments and allowing the identification of local adaptations and specific usages.
The Experimentation function is centralized at European level and manages a powerful network of breeding and evaluation trials for maize and sunflower. The total number of maize "breeding" testing plots is of about 250 000, constantly increasing thanks to sophisticated machinery like "split combines" and eight row planters.
An important Marker laboratory is located in Toulouse linked to a global network of markers and genomics sites in the US. This lab provides the maize breeders with new tools which increase their efficiency and lead to better genetic gains:
Genomic global projects: gene discovery to identify favorable alleles and use them to improve our germplasm. Examples: silage digestibility and drought stress tolerance.
Transgenic traits: Our best elite germplasm is converted with transgenic traits in order to market modified hybrids as soon as commercialization is possible in different countries:
The total corn breeding investment is above 10% of our EU turnover.
The European team represents 46 full time employees. They are French, German, Spanish, Italian, Turkish, Hungarian and Ukrainian with functions as breeders and head of common EU functions, experimentation & lab technicians.
Our selection criteria are driven by our customers demand.
Multifunction teams that we call Product Project Teams, including Marketing, Production and Research people define the profile of varieties requested by farmers and industry in each area. Based on these priorities the breeders can weight the intensity of selection of different traits.
Here some examples of key traits:
Product Project "Early" Very early and early silage and grain varieties for Northern Europe
Product Project "Mid" Mid early, mid late and late grain hybrids for central West and East Europe
Product Project "Late" Late and very late grain hybrids for Southern Europe (also silage for Italy)
