Harmoniz Seeds, a global agtech company engaged in the development of greenhouse seeds, said it will open a high-tech facility in Ontario that will deliver early access to exclusive tomato, pepper and cucumber varieties to its North American customers and bring its breeding expertise closer to the region’s top producers.
Set to officially open May 14, the new facility will expand Harmoniz Seeds’ footprint in North America and will complement its global innovation hub operations, which include sites in the Netherlands, Mexico and Italy.
“The North American climate creates unique growing challenges — from extreme winters to hot, humid summers,” Stephan Vonk, Harmoniz Seeds’ area sales manager for Canada and U.S., said in a news release. “By establishing a dedicated facility in Ontario, we’re positioned to develop varieties specifically adapted to these growing conditions.”
The location will serve as a validation center for new material developed at Harmoniz Seeds’ R&D center in the Netherlands, and it will serve as a demo site to run concurrent trials with its European operations and introduce pre-commercial or semi-commercial varieties to the market at an early stage, according to the company.
Harmoniz Seeds said it operates a specialized Plant Virus Inoculation System testing program at a separate Canadian location to evaluate tomato brown rugose fruit virus-resistant varieties developed and tested against local strains of the virus throughout complete growing cycles. This testing program also connects to the company’s global PVIS network in Israel, Spain and Sicily. The company said this Canadian-based PVIS helps it ensure varieties targeting the North American market are truly suitable for the region’s growing conditions.
“When growers see the ToBRFV-resistant designation on a Harmoniz variety, they can be confident it’s, besides being lab tested, backed by thorough testing under local conditions and that will get the best combination of plant performance, high resistance, and fruit quality,” Vonk said.
