Dr Pavle Sklenar, General Director, KWS

Less known among our producers is the fact that KWS takes second place in corn seed sales in the EU 28, and third in Europe, which says a lot about the quality of its hybrids.

KWS is investing heavily in developing the Serbian market. It has invested over €30 million in its seed plant in Bečej and with the launch of a second corn preparation line, a production of 400,000 planting units is expected, while the nominal capacity of 700,000 units (50 thousand seeds) will be achieved within a season or two.

In seed quality, it ranks among the three leading KWS seed plants in Europe and the aim is to make it the best in the group. All of the treated seed is produced on Serbia’s best fields by carefully chosen partners, with 100% of the production under irrigation.

The Seed plant in Bečej is the best example of the latest German technology in this field. At the opening it was announced that a second phase was to be built – how far has this come?

– Seed plant in Bečej is an investment worth over €30 million. The second corn line was opened on the 8th of December. Besides this, we have opened a line for processing sunflower seed.

For processing seeds, what distinguishes the KWS seed plant is the application of a colour sorter before processing the corn. This ensures that only corn with no breakage or damage is processed, and all impurities and broken and damaged seed are separated.

As we all know that the number of plants is one of the main components of the yield, it is obvious just what security and quality we can provide our partners by applying this new technology.

Besides this, a state-of-the-art laboratory for seed research at the processing centre is a guarantee of the quality we offer.

We have received numerous recognitions and awards for consistent seed quality. We can emphasise SEED Guard – a system especially responsible for checking the quality of seed processing. This system has already been applied for several years in Germany and the EU under the name “Seed Guard”, and now for the first time such a quality control system has been introduced to Serbia, by the German branch of certification company SGS. A positive Seed Guard assessment and certificate has proved that the KWS processing centre for corn and sunflower seed fulfils all the conditions to attain the highest quality in seed processing.

The Seed plant in Bečej is an investment worth over €30 million. The second corn line was opened on 8th December. Besides this, we have opened a line for processing sunflower seed

At the Field days in Bečej, you announced the building of an R&D centre in Stara Pazova.

– I am proud to announce that the research and development centre in Stara Pazova opened on 14th December. This is a great event for KWS, but also for Serbian farmers, as we are starting a full programme of processing and developing hybrids in our country for Serbia’s specific conditions.

At our station, we will be applying the latest results in the field of corn processing and selection. The station will be completely equipped with modern equipment and machinery for the independent creation of hybrid lines, processing small quantities of seed, sowing experiments and analysis of the results.

The value of intellectual property in lines and knowledge will surpass the value of the Bečej processing centre severalfold.

Such investment and research show total dedication and recognition of the value and potential of Serbian agriculture on the part of KWS, and it sends a clear signal to our partners regarding who they can count and rely on in future.

What is your suggestion of KWS hybrids?

– I would especially like to emphasise the new hybrids of the group CLIMACONTROL3 Kolumbaris and Kerbanis and the hybrid Konfites. To the great joy of producers, exceptional yields have been seen this year from the group FAO 600 Konsens, but also from the well-tried Kermess.

What especially pleases us is confirmation from producers on the yields from Zrno plus hybrids from all parts of Serbia.