On Wednesday, June 18, KWS Vegetables inaugurated a new R&D center in Andijk. This facility, which includes a greenhouse, office, and laboratories, demonstrates the German family business's commitment to advancing in the vegetable seed industry. As a new entrant in this field, KWS is making significant investments. The company is already seeing the emergence of its first commercial varieties for an increasing number of crops, such as "Tropicalia" in watermelons. Although KWS is not currently focusing on breeding high-tech crops, the advanced facilities in Andijk are still essential for their operations.
The greenhouse measures 6,600 m²
The new R&D center is located in Andijk, on the former site of Pop Vriend Seeds, which KWS acquired in 2019. While Pop Vriend Seeds also had a greenhouse, this new facility represents a significant technological and scale upgrade. The center occupies 1 hectare of land, situated next to demonstration fields for open-field crops and near the village center of Andijk. The opening event attracted many local residents, in addition to colleagues and construction partners.
The new greenhouse complex will focus on research into open-field crops such as spinach, beans, beetroot, and Swiss chard. Additionally, a section of the facility will be dedicated to fruit vegetable crops like cucumber and pepper, concentrating on experiments and the reproduction of doubled haploid plants, which are being developed at the KWS research center in Wageningen.
The 25 R&D experts set to work at this new location will concentrate on research involving spinach, beans, beetroot, Swiss chard, cucumber, and pepper. "With these new facilities, we can significantly increase the number of plant lines we test. This includes cultivating doubled haploid cucumber and pepper plants, which are being developed by our colleagues in Wageningen," said location manager Frank Hollenberg during the opening ceremony, attended by colleagues, partners, neighbors, and local officials. "I extend my gratitude to everyone who contributed to the successful realization of this project."
View the photo report of the tour through the greenhouse here (link in Dutch)
For more information:
KWS Vegetables
[email protected]
www.kwsvegetables.com