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| One century of successful breeding |
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| From a small Swedish village to global presence |
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 The process of merging several Swedish sugar factories in 1907 also generated
the start of a comprehensive breeding programme on sugar beet. The breeding
was located to the small village of Hilleshög in the south of the country.
The breeding target was to develop sugar beet varieties adapted to Swedish conditions.
Already in the 1920ies the needs of the fairly restricted Swedish market were covered,
but export possibilities appeared for the Hilleshög seed and in order to come closer
to the foreign markets, a daughter company was founded in the Netherlands in 1924.
This became a turning point in the history of Hilleshög - from the role of local
Swedish supplier of sugar beet seed to a presence on the European scene.
From this date on, the company increased its presence on different sugar beet
markets in Europe and eventually on all global markets.
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| First, genetic monogerm variety |
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In 1966, Hilleshög made a major inroad in genetic improvement of the sugar beet by introducing
the first genetic monogerm variety, combining monogermity with high yield.
This improvement drastically changed the management of the crop and the new variety
- Monohill - made it possible for the grower to drill to a stand and as a result,
the labour intense singling work disappeared. The new drilling technique meant
very high demands on good seed quality. A major step in the aim of achieving
the best possible seed quality was to move the seed multiplication from Sweden
to France and Italy.
Monohill was very successful and kept its popularity during more than two decades.
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| From a sugar company to an agribusiness company |
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Hilleshög was part of the Swedish sugar company until 1968.
It then became an independent company, but with close links to the sugar company.
In1986 Hilleshög was bought by the Swedish car company Volvo, at that time looking
for new frontiers. Three years later Hilleshög was sold to the Swiss pharmaceutical
company Sandoz. This move placed Hilleshög in one of the leading seed companies,
encompassing a wide array of crops and developing the breeding tools of the future.
Since 2001, Hilleshög is the sugar beet brand of Syngenta, a global company fully dedicated
to agriculture through its Plant Protection, Seeds and Plant Science divisions and serving farmers
throughout the world.
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| Supplier to growers around the world |
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In the last twenty years Hilleshög has extended its activity to all major sugar
beet areas, e.g. USA, Central Europe, Russia, China. Along with more and more
elaborate traditional breeding methods, a number of new molecular breeding tools
have been developed in order to speed up breeding progress.
Today Hilleshög is one of the leaders on the global sugar beet seeds market,
and Hilleshög varieties are used on more than 1 million hectares
each year, from Chile eastwards to China and from Morocco to Finland
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| Striving for success of the sugar beet crop |
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Global sugar consumption grows with about 3% per year and in order to compete successfully with sugar cane
for a share of that growth, the sugar beet crop is now also coming to Tropical countries
to show its contribution to sustainable farming and to supply consumers with a quality product.
At Hilleshög, we are convinced that breeding will play a major role in creating
the future of the crop, and we are dedicated to be a major contributor to the success of the crop.
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