Overview
- Koning Willem-Alexander formally opened Agrico Research’s new laboratory in Bant during the company’s annual rassenshow and toured the facility with researchers and staff.
- Agrico will use DNA-based early trait prediction to narrow the search for promising lines far sooner in the pipeline, shortening parts of a breeding cycle that traditionally starts with about 225,000 candidate lines and yields only three or four varieties after roughly 12 years.
- A central research priority is building resistance to crop diseases, especially rapidly evolving fungal pathogens that can develop faster than breeders can roll out new varieties.
- The complex includes a large on-site kitchen where scientists assess how new varieties perform for chips, fries and other products so that processing quality is tested alongside genetic traits.
- The move aims to strengthen the Netherlands’ role as a major supplier of seed potatoes and to give growers and exporters better tools against disease pressure, though Agrico stresses that breeding remains a long-term and ongoing challenge.