West Frisia may just be one of the most internationally oriented regions of the Netherlands. Nearly all seed breeders have offices, greenhouses, warehouses or R&D centers here. These companies' seeds find their way across the border, and Bakker Brothers is no exception to that. "99 percent of the 3,000 tons of seeds we produce are shipped abroad by container vessel or cargo plane."
Like shades from a science fiction movie, linen bags are hanging from wires in a closed off greenhouse. The Tuta absoluta, one of the most destructive insects for tomatoes, flies around here. The originally Amazonian bug is able to decimate a healthy tomato vine in no time. As a result of international trade, the moth is found everywhere, in Europe as well now. Wouter Bakker looks through the window at the linen bags.
"Making our six crops more resistant step by step is what we do here and in other locations. There's a wild tomato that's immune to the Tuta. We're working on transferring this tomato's quality to a variety in our own tomato seed range. That's way, tomatoes will get an immunity boost without using chemicals. Our seeds for zucchinis, beans, onions and eggplants are mostly used in the open field rather than in greenhouses. The conditions there are a lot more fickle than in a climate-controlled greenhouse. We don't occupy ourselves with developments like mini cucumbers or specialty lettuce varieties for the consumer. Our drive is to feed families at as low a cost as possible."
Fourth generation
Wouter represents the fourth generation from the Bakker family. Together with his uncle, Eric Bakker (third generation), he leads the company that was established in 1928 to breed cabbage seeds. Bakker Brothers is a breeding, production and distribution company. Since its inception, the Bakkers have been looking across borders, but that idea grew stronger after the Second World War.
In America, they are sometimes jokingly referred to as the Bakker Bros. Since the company became a part of the South African Klein Karoo Kooperasie in 2003/2004 and later Zaad Holdings Ltd. (a subsidiary of South African agri investor Zeder), the internationalisation only increased. Wouter is also on the board of Zaad Holdings. "Bakker Brothers is a small player in the world of breeders, with a turnover of around 16 million euros in vegetable seeds. But being a part of Zaad Holdings, with a turnover of about 100 million euros, we are a force to be reckoned with. It's easier for us to get licenses and cooperate with universities, institutes and fellow entrepreneurs. We don't do fundamental research. We're really a company that brings developments to the market by using a license, which provides us with the latest technology to breed our crops."
Breeding as a quest
The seeds to Africa are shipped in large and small tins, so they don't just arrive intact, but the local population can also turn them into the well-known tin cars. Wouter Bakker: "Our drive is working with food: contributing to solving the worldwide food problem. Seeds are at the basis of every vegetable. The better the seed, the more a grower can produce. Through our breeding stations in Jordan and South Africa, as well as another ten trial stations worldwide, we are able to breed quickly. We reach a stable variety within seven generations. That means a timespan of roughly 3 years, because we distribute those stages across three different breeding stations. It used to take us 7 years. Each year, we bring the seed up another three generations for most crops. Our work is a quest in which you can't lose your way, otherwise you'll have worked in vain for years."
The production of said stable seed is outsourced to around twenty companies in China, America and France, the seeds from these companies are all taken to Bakker Brothers in the Netherlands, where they are treated, packaged, and sent to the distributor. What many people don't know is that Bakker Brothers is the biggest supplier of vegetable seeds to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Uncle Eric: "We actually notice the geopolitical situation of a region or country immediately here in Noord-Scharwoude. We always have to deal with a conflict zone, so our warehouses contain seeds for South Sudan, Iraq and Syria, which we sell to the FAO at cost price."
Wouter continues: "We work with distributors in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, about two hundred of them. Through wars, networks are lost and growers can't do their job anymore, with famine as a result. FAO aims to combat that with seeds. By the way, 20 percent of our seed production goes directly to companies that process canned vegetables, like those of Bonduelle. They in turn distribute the seeds to contracted farmers, who own hundreds of hectares of land."






Announcements
Job Offers
- Directors - New Zealand
- Nursery Production Manager Victoria Australia
- Technical Sales Consultant, Washington
- Export Sales Manager North America Exports
- Head Grower Hydroponic Greenhouse
- Account Manager – South-East Asia
- Vegetable Seed - EU Sales and Regional Manager
- Business Developer – High Tech Horticulture
- Operations Manager Organic Farm Barka Oman
- Bravo Sales and Administration Officer
"Tweeting Growers"
Top 5 -yesterday
Top 5 -last week
Top 5 -last month
- "Honduras greenhouse park to become the largest producer-exporter in the Central American region"
- Netherlands: Codema Systems Group declared bankrupt
- Shanghai: Young people who can't get vegetables start to "help themselves" through hydroponic vegetables
- Canada: Dutch holding company acquires Ontario Plants Propagation
- Google meets agriculture at Go Green Agriculture
Receive the daily newsletter in your email for free | Click here
Other news in this sector:
- 2022-05-16 "You can plant the seed yourself, but true growth is achieved together"
- 2022-05-16 Growing a better strawberry
- 2022-05-16 How hybrid plant varieties could address the challenges of food security
- 2022-05-13 Ghana: WACCI calls for strategic investments in tomato seed systems
- 2022-05-12 New Genetic Technology Bill will support more sustainable agriculture
- 2022-05-12 Chinese scientists report new progress in carotenoid biofortification in tomato products
- 2022-05-11 12,000 seed varieties return to earth after space trip
- 2022-05-06 "Only high resistance can stop the spread of ToBRFV"
- 2022-05-04 Chicago’s Tomato Man on mission to help others rethink tomatoes
- 2022-05-03 "Innovation has continued to drive us since our inception in 1944"
- 2022-04-28 Crops & DNA: intriguing and crucial to boost innovation
- 2022-04-28 Space seed breeding makes breakthrough, yielding nearly 1,000 new species
- 2022-04-28 "Plant Variety Rights have a significant positive impact on European Union’s economic growth and environmental sustainability"
- 2022-04-22 "Vietnam is doing well in the horticultural field"
- 2022-04-21 Syngenta’s “eat-it-all” cauliflower receives bronze Innovation Award at Fruit Logistica 2022
- 2022-04-21 Crops scientists are looking to wild varieties to improve heat and drought resistance
- 2022-04-21 Italian and Spanish farmers have been key in the history of today's tomato
- 2022-04-15 China: "Capital and passion alone is not enough – you also need knowledge"
- 2022-04-07 India exempts certain gene-edited crops from biosafety assessment
- 2022-04-05 Retailers experience new Sekoya blueberries at event in Spain