Bayer CropScience expands European Wheat Breeding Center in Germany

Bayer CropScience has expanded its European presence by expanding its European Wheat Breeding Center in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The Breeding Center has tripled its facility at the Gatersleben Biotech Park through investments that amount to $16.7 million.

“The expansion of the breeding center is another milestone in our wheat strategy,” Frank Terhorst, head of Bayer CropScience’s seeds business, said this week at the inauguration of several new buildings at the complex.

The center's 18 employees develop varieties of seeds, as well as coordinate all of the wheat breeding from Bayer CropScience’s European locations in France and Ukraine. The goal of the three locations is to produce a hybrid seed with markedly enhanced yield stability after the year 2020.

“With a total of seven wheat-breeding centers worldwide, we now have ideal conditions to establish a leading position in the wheat-seed business over the coming years,” Terhorst said. “The demand for wheat is growing steadily and outstripping productivity. To increase productivity without negatively impacting the environment, we need innovation, which is why we are investing intensively in research here in Gatersleben. Extreme weather conditions have already destabilized the global wheat markets on several occasions since 2000.”

Other goals for Bayer CropScience’s wheat breeders are yield stability, increased yields and efficient nutrient utilization, as well as adapting seed varieties to unpredictable stressful situations, such as the weather.