Seminis Seeds Sees Growth Stemming From Joint Venture

Moving toward the company’s goal of building a strong presence in just about all corners of the world, Seminis Vegetable Seeds of Saticoy has entered into a partnership with the Australian seed operation Arthur Yates & Co.

The joint commercial-seed venture, known as Yates Vegetable Seeds, began operation earlier this month. Yates owns 80% of the new company and Seminis owns the remaining 20%, with an option to increase its share.

Yates Vegetable Seeds will market Seminis’ Asgrow and Bruinsma seed brands along with Yates seed products. The Seminis Petoseed, Genecorp and Royal Sluis lines are also distributed in Australia as part of a separate distribution arrangement.

As part of the new alliance, Yates also will own an 80% share of New World Seeds, a major distributor of Seminis seeds in New Zealand and Australia. Seminis recently purchased the distributorship.

Dietrich Schmidt, president of Seminis, estimated the value of the Australia-New Zealand seed market at about $10 million annually. He said the new company will allow the Ventura County operation to tap into a bigger chunk of that market.

“We will get a much stronger distribution and sales network in New Zealand and Australia, which is very important for us in order to serve our customers and increase our market share worldwide,” Schmidt said.

“We continue to have alliances in places like China and we are working on the entire Far East with another large, new relationship over there,” he said. “We are almost in every part of the world today.”

Seminis Vegetable Seeds is a privately held company owned by Seminis Inc., a joint venture of Empresas La Moderna of Monterrey, Mexico, and the Geo. J. Ball company of Illinois.

In addition to acquiring a larger international customer base, Schmidt said that setting up shop around the world will enable his company to breed seeds appropriate for different markets.

“We need to be responsive to the needs of customers worldwide. India, China, Brazil, France--each one has different requirements based on their diets and their climates,” Schmidt said. “With the new company, we will have breeding and research activity for [Australia-New Zealand] too.”

Warrick Chudleigh, general manager of Yates, said the partnership offers plenty of benefits for his company as well. He said the merger should increase Yates’ market share from 25% to 40% in Australia and from 60% to 70% in New Zealand.

“We’ve taken out a competitor in the market,” Chudleigh said.

“By forming a strategic alliance with Seminis, it increases sales, increases resources, reduces costs, shares risks and gives us access to technology and long-term security,” he said. “We will also see an increase in the States and other export markets through a closer cooperation with Seminis in our breeding programs.”

Seminis has distributed Yates lettuce seeds in the United States under the Petoseed label for the last five years.