De Ruiter and Seminis: together Vegetables by Bayer

Bayer today unveiled the “Vegetables by Bayer” brand platform, uniting two trusted brands, Seminis® and De Ruiter®, under one shared purpose with a new brand identity, positioning, and global website: vegetables.bayer.com

With more than 20 different crops and thousands of innovative vegetable seed varieties, Seminis® and De Ruiter® have long provided cutting-edge solutions for customers in diverse open-field and protected environments. Now, they will join forces as part of “Vegetables by Bayer” with refreshed branding and an even deeper commitment to delivering value at every step – to growers, partners, consumers, and the planet.

“By bringing together world-class experts and resources from across Bayer, the new ‘Vegetables by Bayer' umbrella enables our Seminis® and De Ruiter® brands to provide value to our customers and partners in new and exciting ways,” said Inci Dannenberg, President of Global Vegetable Seeds at Bayer.

That value is reflected across four core pillars: partnership, innovation, performance, and sustainability.

• Partnership: The recently announced collaboration with The Netherlands-based BraZander Nursery, who became the first glasshouse farm to join the Bayer ForwardFarming-network, is one example of Bayer’s commitment to partnership in the produce industry. This announcement represents an expansion of the existing BraZander’s partnership with the De Ruiter Experience Center, a state-of-the-art glasshouse demonstration center focused on the latest breeding, cultivation, and digital technologies for sustainable tomato production..
• Innovation: With one of the most diverse germplasm libraries in the industry, combined with digital and crop protection innovations, Bayer is committed to developing integrated solutions that improve yield and adaptability, while delivering on consumer demand. This investment in innovation is seen in the recent launch of new tomato varieties with intermediate resistance to Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus (ToBRFV), a viral disease that can be easily transmitted through farming tools and equipment, plants, water, soil and people. For the grower, these new varieties mean an opportunity to protect more marketable yield without fruit and leaf symptoms and provide a more consistent supply into the food chain.
  • For example, Bayer’s High Rise™ broccoli series varieties grow tall and feature strong, clean stems with few large leaves and visible crowns that are firm and heavy. The uniform maturity, strong yield potential and consistent product quality have the ability to help growers achieve efficient harvests through less harvest passes.
  • Bayer’s Curdivex® Cauliflower is white, bright and easy to harvest! A new cauliflower with less wrapping for easy harvest. Even though it’s more exposed to sunlight than traditional varieties, the curd stays white. Uniform curds for less harvest passes and faster crop turnaround, easier to harvest high heads with less wrapping and very good shelf life; the curd stays whiter for longer.
     
• Performance: From best-in-class seeds to an expert agronomic service with tailored digital solutions, “Vegetables by Bayer” partners with growers and customers to support insightful accurate decisions in relation to crop steering and management consistently building more confidence with our top varieties. For example, its Advanced Precision Horticulture (APH) Venture Initiative combines data science, plant phenotyping, optimized glasshouse climate conditions, and tangible customer insights to help autonomous monitoring of plant growth and balance to better steer plant performance, building confidence every step of the way and allowing growers to maximize crop yield and returns.
  • For example, Bayer’s Caribou, the latest main season carrot variety from Seminis is a clear alternative for growers with high yield potential. Caribou gives uniform roots with good storage potential in cold-store or under straw.
• Sustainability:Every investment in innovation is an investment in sustainability. Through public-private partnerships like its collaboration with the World Vegetable Centre, an international non-profit research and development institute, Bayer is working to develop improved varieties that meet the specific needs of smallholder farmers in Asia and Africa. This is one example of Bayer’s commitment to reaching 100 million smallholder farmers by 2030 by providing them with the tools, training, and resources they need to grow their business sustainably. According to the FAO, approximately 1/3 of all food produced for human consumption globally is lost or wasted each year. With its Seminis® and De Ruiter® vegetable seeds, Bayer is committed to helping reduce food loss and waste, ensuring high-quality, nutritious produce reaches more consumers.
  • Rockito onion offers market flexibility thanks to its long-term storage potential of up to seven months, with proven quality out of storage, giving growers and value chain partners greater flexibility.

The launch comes as the United Nations celebrates the “International Year of Fruits and Vegetables 2021,” which aims to raise awareness of the benefits of fruit and vegetable consumption. “From our industry-leading R&D to tailored solutions that go beyond the seed to meet the evolving needs of the market, ‘Vegetables by Bayer’ reflects our commitment to helping our customers grow their businesses so together we can foster a healthier, more sustainable world,” said Dannenberg.