East West Seed Indonesia celebrates 20th anniversary

lunes, 21 junio 2010

This year, East West Seed Indonesia (Ewindo), a joint venture between Enza Zaden and East West International, celebrates its 20th anniversary.

In 1990, the company was established as the first true vegetable breeding company in Indonesia, focussing specifically on the Indonesian market. Today, Ewindo has grown to become the most important vegetable breeding company of the country with a market share of over forty percent.

Piet Mazereeuw, nowadays chairman of Enza Zaden’s Supervisory Board, and Simon Groot, chairman of East West International, took the first step towards the establishment of Ewindo. After looking at the situation of vegetable growers in Indonesia, they both noticed that the very low yield on the productions was caused, for instance, by several diseases. Diseases against which Enza Zaden as well as East West Seed International had resistant material available and against which both companies developed a new market-oriented approach.

In and for Indonesia

The mission was to establish an Indonesian company in and for the country, with the support of the founders in means and knowledge. Enza Zaden has contributed considerably by, for example, sharing its knowledge of plant breeding and its know-how in seed technology. By now, Ewindo has grown to become a company with extensive R&D knowledge and expertise in seed technology, with its own seed production and processing facilities, with more than 500 employees and with a large, efficient marketing and sales department.

Stimulating prosperity

In the last twenty years, Ewindo has played a major role in the switchover to quality seed. The hybrid varieties are nowadays available to many Indonesian growers, offering them much more reliability. Ewindo has therefore contributed essentially to the prosperity of growers and consumers in Indonesia.