Phytowelt GreenTechnologies enters into research collaboration with Syngenta Flowers

Emerging trends in consumer habits, and a need to adapt to potential changes in growing climates, now place new demands on the flowers industry to shorten product cycles for cultivated plants and accelerate breeding processes. Two leading companies serving professional growers and consumers have reached an agreement permitting collaboration on research, enhancing their respective abilities to meet these challenges to the market for flowers, employing modern plant breeding technologies to satisfy these ambitious demands.

"Our R&D project with Syngenta Flowers highlights once more our continuous efforts to promote the modern use of plant biodiversity reflected in our vision phytoplus® - added value in and out of plants" explains Peter Welters, CEO of Phytowelt. "The synergistic effect of Phytowelt's innovative methods to create, use and analyse plant biodiversity and Syngenta Flowers' knowledge on genomics, breeding and valuable plant traits will bring benefits to the consumer and improve the technology and product portfolio of both partners."

"Syngenta Flowers has a history of collaborating with companies which provide cutting edge technology"said Henk Driessen, head product development of Syngenta Flowers. "Having carefully evaluated many different options, we decided to collaborate with Phytowelt because of its strong expertise in the area we are interested in. The research collaboration we are to embark on is designed to find solutions to some paramount challenges as well as enhance both companies' level of expertise in breeding and adaptation of technology."

Syngenta Flowers is a worldwide leader in the pot and bedding plant industry with a large proprietary portfolio. Operating on a global basis, it breeds and markets high-quality flower seeds, young plants and cuttings for the ornamental industry. In 2008, Syngenta reported flowers sales of $337 million.