Corn salad

We help, you grow.

For the last 15 years, our first ambition is to always look for the best quality corn salad.

Paul Heuvelmans, BASF Corn salad Breeder & Sigrid Werner, OTEC Senior Scientist explain their role in the process from breeding to delivering corn salad to our partners.

To meet customer needs is the first step of breeding

All year long professional growers are producing corn salad and we need to arrive with a clear answer in terms of variety portfolio.

Paul explains:

“We place our efforts on vigorous varieties; the winter season is a key period for corn salad production, growers need vigorous varieties to provide yield. We also focus on good standing ability and quality of emergence. BARON is the best example of success; the variety found its place in Nantes area (France).

We search for compactness (less than 7cm); sunless winter days or shading in summer makes the product more sensitive to elongation. Due to the global warming, we breed new varieties which will germinate even under high temperatures. We are doing a lot of research to meet this request. In addition to breeding, our Quality Control Department check all lots for heat and cold sensitivity ensuring optimal performance for the demands of each season.

We also need varieties less sensitive to yellowing because consumers need to have attractive fresh green leaves on their plate.

For the processing industry we look for varieties resistant to industrial cleaning processes and of course shelf life, because people like to consume fresh corn salad.”

 

Fight against diseases: our best achievement

Thanks to the involvement of our dedicated team in Operations Technology and Quality Control Department, we succeed to deliver high seed quality in the market. Sigrid explains the long process to send lots without diseases.

"My role is to ensure that each seed lot and seed size arrive healthy at the growers farm by analyzing each production seed lot to check vitality, purity and diseases. Our ambition is to deliver a high-quality standard to all!”

 

Market leader

Today we achieve a big step in this fight against diseases and quality delivery, the best proof is we are now leaders in the European corn salad market.

Christelle Gélard, Regional Product Specialist for Corn Salad is proud of this achievement: “we have an assortment for the whole year, a strong breeding and a very closed relationship with our partners. By listening to our partners and providing adapted material, we are becoming the preferred partner of corn salad experts.”