In response to changes in Central America’s competitive landscape and market potential, vegetable breeding company Enza Zaden plans to integrate its Central American operations into its North American business model, according to a news release.
The move follows years of strategic planning and reflects the company’s commitment to understanding and supporting customer needs through partnership-style relationships, the release said.
“By raising the quality of both the domestic and export markets in Central America, we look forward to replicating our growth trajectory in Mexico and the U.S. since 2007,” Hermann Castro, regional marketing director for Enza Zaden North and Central America, said in the release. “As we continue to enhance our presence, customers will see the difference that our genetics, our people and our partnerships deliver in Central America and all markets we serve.”
Since 2011, Enza Zaden has conducted business in Central America as an export region managed by Enza Zaden Export B.V. in the Netherlands and supported by a dedicated regional sales team, according to the release. The company says this approach has fostered strong relationships with key dealers and driven substantial year-over-year sales growth.
The integration will be managed under the leadership of Rodolfo Leyva, regional sales director for North and Central America, and Gonzalo Tovar, commercial director for Enza Zaden Central America. With decades of global and regional experience in the seed industry, both Leyva and Tovar prioritize the development of strong dealer and grower relationships, the release said.
“By leveraging current strengths and exploring new opportunities, we will build our success in Central America together with our partners,” Leyva said in the release.
From an innovation perspective, rapid knowledge transfer of advanced growing technologies used in Mexico is already underway, the company said.
Enza Zaden says it is a seed breeder that takes a global-for-local approach that leverages premium genetics and deep local knowledge to create solutions. The company’s 2016 identification of a high-resistance (HR) gene for Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus (ToBRFV) is one example example. Six years later, following extensive trials in Mexico, Enza Zaden was first-to-market with HR ToBRFV varieties for multiple key tomato production regions around the world, the release said. Along with strict phytosanitary measures, the new varieties marketed as the “HREZ” collection provide an important solution tool currently available in the fight against ToBRFV, the company says.
“In Central America and all other regions where we operate, we focus on deep awareness of local conditions, augmented by research capacity that enables delivery of the complete package; the right products at the right time, with quality, taste, texture, color and shelf life that exceed expectations,” Tovar said in the release.
The company’s newest R&D station, emulating Enza Zaden stations in more than 20 locations around the world, will be built in Guatemala, leveraging distinct climate zones to enable extensive trialing and the development of highly targeted products for the region, according to the release. Also underway is a plan to enhance the current team with dedicated sales and R&D representatives in Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama. Interconnection of the Central American team with their Mexican and broader North American colleagues will play a key role in the company’s enhanced capacity to deliver for the region, the release said.
“While Mexico shares a lot of commonalities with Central America, there are a surprising number of business, cultural and phytosanitary differences to be appreciated, by region and by country,” Leyva said. “Awareness of these nuances is critical to fortifying productive, long-term relationships with our Central American customers, and to ensuring the overall success of our go-to-market approach.
“We’re focused on building a better business, one that’s faster, delivers better quality and from which customers can anticipate improved commercial introductions, growing technologies and business tools,” Leyva continued.
By leveraging its strengths and aligning efforts across sales, marketing, product and R&D, Enza Zaden says it is poised to deliver product and service excellence within Central America and end-markets in the U.S. and beyond.
