With this new facility in Khon Kaen HM.CLAUSE hopes to deliver higher quality genetics at a faster rate to the farmers in order to create a more sustainable and profitable profession that helps to feed this ever evolving population.
The station is supporting breeding for hot and humid markets of the world for tomato, hot pepper, cucumber, watermelon, melon and tropical sweet corn. Besides breeding and disease screening, this station supports generation advancement, speed to market breeding and adaptation trials of other vegetable crops.
The Khon Kaen R&D station benefits of a cutting edge equipment for production under shelter. On 150,000 m², 90,000 are dedicated to open space for breeding lines and adaptation trial, 5,000 for breeding and crossing activities, 2 000 for natural ventilated poly house for nursery and 30,000 for isolated open space for disease screening. 65 employees are today working on the station and the company is expecting to reach 100 people in the next 3 to 5 years.
For Gilles Gay, VP Head of HM.CLAUSE Research & Development ; Khon Kaen is a key opportunity for its optimal growing conditions, its close proximity to the vegetable growing areas and its access to the local university for scientific collaborations and recruiting of skilled employees. "This is an investment for the future. With its creation we are expecting to triple our capacity in terms of breeding and trialling. The station will also bring the opportunity to grow crops all year round, to accelerate breeding programs for Asia but also for European and American breeding programs."
The Khon Kaen station is marking a step forward in the HM.CLAUSE’s pursuit to deliver high quality vegetable seed genetics which are highly adapted to the South East Asian market and more specifically Thailand.
"The goal we have today, of becoming a top 3 company in Asia, is based on a vision to provide higher quality vegetable seed varieties to our growers and supply chain partners. A critical requirement to this vision is through strong local R&D breeding infrastructure, germplasm and people, to ensure we have varieties well adapted to the local climatic conditions and disease pressures. We believe that Khon Kaen offers these conditions," explains Daniel Gleeson, VP Asia for HM.CLAUSE.
For Rémi Bastien, CEO of HM.CLAUSE: "HM.CLAUSE has strong ambition for this region and we decided to invest massively in Asia. We established local entities in Thailand, India, Vietnam and Indonesia and set up a regional office in Bangkok. We have more than 550 permanent HM.CLAUSE employees, located in those 4 countries."
For more information: www.hmclause.com