Enza Zaden and BASF cooperate to increase innovation power

Cross license agreement to speed up the development of improved vegetable varieties

Enkhuizen/Nunhem, The Netherlands, January 25, 2022 -Enza Zaden and BASF’s vegetables seeds business have entered into a cross-license agreement for patented traits in vegetables. This agreement will increase the innovative power of both companies and speed up the development of new vegetable seeds varieties. The agreement regulates the guaranteed access to patents, covering biological material for vegetable breeding and commercialization.

Jaap Mazereeuw, CEO of Enza Zaden: “Protection of inventions, for example by patents, is an incentive for continuous investment in research & development. At the same time, we strongly believe in the added value of sharing access to genetics with other vegetable breeding companies. It helps us and our partners to develop the solutions of tomorrow for the global food supply. At the end of the day, growers and end consumers will benefit from improved vegetable varieties with important traits such as resistance against diseases, flavor, taste and nutrition.”

“Joining forces with Enza Zaden perfectly fits into our business purpose of making healthy eating enjoyable and sustainable for people, our partners and our planet,” says Vicente Navarro, Senior Vice President of BASF's vegetable seeds business. “I am convinced that in some years from now thanks to this cooperation we will see more innovative and improved vegetable varieties entering the market.”

Both companies have entered this individual collaboration in addition to their active member roles in the International Licensing Platform Vegetable (https://www.ilp-vegetable.org) under which they are committed to granting licenses to any fellow members in respect of all our vegetable trait-patents. The ILP establishes a limited breeder’s exemption for all members to breed with varieties protected by patents and the ILP is open to all seed companies willing to participate.