Acquisition of ERDI bySyngenta:
European salad growers get faster access to world leading lettuce genetics
He highlighted that ERDI has pioneered a number of award winning innovations in lettuce breeding over the past 40 years, particularly for improving tipburn resistance. This will now be rapidly assimilated into the Syngenta variety breeding programme to benefit growers.
Most recently the Eagle breeding projects have included work on disease resistance and the development of better commercial quality lettuce. “The purchase will enables us to expand our lettuce germplasm pool at an accelerated pace, and complement our own in-house breeding efforts to meet evolving customer needs for new lettuce varieties,” said Mr Lees.
ERDI’s work has been especially renowned for tipburn resistance in iceberg lettuce varieties, enabling improved plant performance characteristics by minimising browning of the leaf edges of young, maturing leaves.
“This is an excellent opportunity to combine Eagle germplasm with Syngenta’s strong disease resistance package,” added Mr Lees. “We will now be able to offer customers across Europe additional options for a more complete iceberg lettuce portfolio. It further reinforces Syngenta commitment to invest in salad crop varieties for the future.”
In 2012, EDRI founder, David Williams, was inducted into the National Steinbeck Center’s Valley of the World Hall of Fame, in recognition of his lifetime of work in furthering agricultural research.
For more Information
Syngenta
Rebecca Stilton
Tel: 01223 883510
[email protected]
Kirsty Gould
Tel: 01223 883501
[email protected]
Christopher Lees
Tel: 01223 883400
[email protected]
