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 Main subject - mar/apr 2006
Horticultural Seeds: well nourished performance
Indispensable in the diet, vegetables are even considered as medicine in preventing chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases. That group comprises all kitchen-garden cultivated vegetables, which edible parts are: stem, tubercles and roots, bulbs, leaves, flowers, fruit, and seeds. Their varied coloring is not addressed to please the eyes and stimulate the appetite, since each pigment is responsible for an important feature in the nutritional and disease combat process.
Light, easy to digest, vegetables contain minerals and vitamins. Rich in fibers and containing anti oxidizing substances, they help in the organism good functioning. They can be consumed in raw - which guarantees an higher content of vitamins and minerals -, in salads, juice, and in the preparation of cookings, soups, pures, pudings, soufles and as several fillings.
This prologue introduces the central issue of this edition: the reality of Brazilian horticulture seeds segment. And, although the initial text has emphasized nutritional aspects, our approach will be addressed to seed commercial issues and the technological level achieved by this sector.
Different from other areas, the segment of vegetables is characterized by its large range of products, more than 300 in fact. This way, it is propitious to highlight that such range comprises vegetables itself but also condiments and flowers - the last not exactly for food but to gardening, landscaping and decoration.
By making hybrid, conventional, and organic varieties available, the sector is highlighted by its high technical level and its expressive representativity in the economic scenario, since it reaches annual profit well over US$ 100 million.
Vegetables and flower seeds are characterized by their high commercialization value, which requires precision and much reliance as to seed technology with regards to seed physiological and health quality and uniformity.
Another feature of the sector, which explains its great penetration in Brazilian market is the large number of distribution points: more than 15 thousand, what would allow to expect that in each of the 5 thousand towns in the country the products are available in three stores of agricultural items. In fact, it is an "ant market" whose magnitude is not realized in an hurried evaluation, but that counts high results with regards to productivity and income.
We must also remark the fact that due to the large range of products, breeding programs are conducted by a third part, by means of established partnerships.
In order to focus on the peculiarities of this production niche, we will concentrate on the routine and tradition of three large companies in our country: ISLA, Feltrin Sementes and Agristar do Brasil.
History
Directed to both production and marketing of vegetables, flowers, condiments, and medicine herbs seeds, ISLA was 50 years old in 2005. In the beginning, the segment of vegetables seeds in Brazil was an exclusiveness of multinational companies. ISLA was the first national vegetable seed company in Brazil.
Creating the company was only the first challenge. Soon others came. The first dehumidified room, the first packaging machine, and the first hermetic aluminium pack are some examples of the technological innovations implanted at ISLA. The company entered the new century as one of the largest in Latin America in the area of production and marketing of vegetables, flowers, condiments, and medicine herbs seeds.
Optima Onion F1
Feltrin Sementes is a 28 years old company, that commercializes vegetables, flowers, and condiments seeds. The company started its activities aiming at first the market of seeds in South Brazil but later it set a network allowing the commercialization in all cities and states of the country. Currently it has 87 distributors and 15 000 retailers and exports seeds for the whole Latin America and some countries from Asia and Africa.
With 100% national funds and 47 years old, Agristar do Brasil acts on researching, producing and marketing inputs and services for horticulture, fruit growing, and landscaping. It was founded in 1958 as L. Daenfeld and soon it adopted the name Topseed Sementes Ltda. Nowadays, under the name Agristar do Brasil Ltda, it is one the largest national companies and withholds a good Brazilian seed market share.
Line of products
With more than 300 products in the market, Feltrin Sementes is nowadays the fourth company in seeds sales in Brazil, with a largely diversified line of products, with different technical characteristics, aiming at assisting different customers in several regions in Brazil. The most important vegetables are coriander, tomato, guinea pepper, onion, and melon.
"In Brazil, the cost of the seed to its final consumer is not significant, being around 3 to 10% the cost of a crop. One seed of hybrid tomato costs to the farmer from 7 to 10% of the final conduction cost of a plant, guaranteeing its production and productivity", comments Feltrin's executive.
Agristar's whole production volume, besides seeds from international brands that it represents exclusively, as well as equipments and other agricultural inputs and services produced by third parties, is commercialized by means of the distinct business divisions: Topseed Premium, whose focus is the development of high genetical potential seeds and excellent physiological quality, addressed to horticulture. Topseed Garden is in charge of the development of traditional products suitable to small and medium producers as well as innovative products which target consumption market, Hobby & Lazer. And Agritech, which focus on the development of technologies for improving seed performance (pelletization, coating and priming), while commercializes inputs, plant substrates, and foliar fertilizers.
At ISLA, almost the whole business relates to vegetables (90%), flowers (7%), and condiments and medicine herbs (2%) seeds. The remaining 1% is in the line of books, a news seed of the company is Carrot Brasília, which already detains from 70% to 80% of the Brazilian market for summer carrots. It is in this cultivar that ISLA gets the largest share in the national market. By its side there are other four species. However, in the last years, other species have been highlighted showing a spectacular increase in sales. Altogether, those species had in the past 8 years a sales increment as high as 685%.
With regards to price, the most expensive varieties are the hybrid Melon Canarian (US$70.00 / 1,000 seeds) and the hybrid, long life, Cherry Tomato Chipano (US$ 60.00 / 1,000 seeds). The Melon Canarian produces from 15 to 20 tons per hectare and the Cherry Tomato produces around 40 tons per hectare.
Carrot Brasília
ISLA has a total of 389 seed materials, among vegetables (188), flowers (148), condiments and medicine herbs (24) and organic seeds (29). Species are divided into several varieties. For instance, onion has 11 varieties, lettuce, 16, and carrot, 8. But there are other variants yet: carrots have three calibres (M, L, and LL); besides the nude seed, there are also available the semi-pelletized and pellicle options. As we can notice, one cultivar has several variants combinations. Thus, ISLA can assist to every kind of demand from customers, who have different needs and adopt varied procedures in the different areas of the country.
The extension of the Brazilian territory shows different weather and soil conditions, cultivation technical system and cultural aspects. In such a scenario, Feltrin strategically tries to develop different products aiming at assisting different market niches. "We always ask what features or technical specifications our product must have to be the best while assisting our customers requests in that market niche. Only in pumpkin, we have 22 products; in Lettuce, 34; Onion, 19; Tomato, 23; and in Flowers, 87 products", highlights the company's executive, Luis Eduardo Rodrigues.
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