Our work to apply advanced breeding techniques to Seminis’ top 10 vegetable crops positions us to deliver new value to customers and our business leading up to 2012.

Today, Seminis scientists are using Monsanto’s technology and screening processes to make quick advances in marker development. By tapping into Monsanto’s breeding technologies and automation, we’ve been able to reduce our costs per marker to one-third of what it would have been in 2005. By 2009, we will have developed more than 10,000 markers for our top 10 crops. This step will allow us to breed higher-yielding, higher-performing crops — unlocking enormous potential for growth in market share and pricing. We’re making tremendous progress already. This year, we’ve increased our tomato marker set to 1,600 markers, well ahead of our original schedule.

Our work is already helping tomato researchers like Teresa Bunn breed for and stack valuable characteristics that can be applied across our tomato portfolio. These traits include disease resistance and nematode resistance, as well as desirable consumer traits such as taste and appearance.

Dave Sheppard, U.S. tomato grower.

Sheppard plants more than 60 acres of tomatoes each year and sells his harvest to local grocery stores and at roadside stands. He looks to Seminis to deliver new innovation to his farm, including enhancements such as disease resistance.

Seminis Tomato Specialists, United States and Europe.

Jaap Hoogstraten and Elaine Graham examine the characteristics of tomatoes at Seminis’ research facility in California. Graham’s research in genetic markers helps breeders like Hoogstraten better identify improvements. This approach allows Hoogstraten to add value to the products that he develops for farmers in the Middle East and Southern Europe.