Seed companies join forces to form Limagrain Zaad South Africa

5th August 2020 By: Tasneem Bulbulia - Senior Contributing Editor Online

Three of South Africa’s agricultural seed companies, Link Seed, Klein Karoo Seed Marketing (K2) and Seed Co South Africa, have joined forces to create a joint venture (JV) company − Limagrain Zaad South Africa − to provide multi crop alternatives for farmers in Southern Africa.

K2 offers an agronomical and forage seed product range, as well as vegetable seeds across the region.

Seed Co is involved in the creation, multiplication and distribution of improved hybrid seed varieties such as maize, wheat, soybeans, sugar beans, cowpeas, sorghum, groundnuts and vegetables across the continent.

Link Seed, a Limagrain affiliate, offers a range of maize and soybean cultivars in South Africa.

Limagrain Zaad South Africa has a unified sales team selling three brands of seeds – Limagrain, K2 and Seed Co – enabling it to market a complete offering to producers in South Africa, Lesotho, eSwatini and Namibia.

With the farming market in Southern Africa dominated by multinational companies, the size of the JV company and its access to technologies is expected to give farmers an alternative for all major field and pasture crops.

The head office of the new company will be in Greytown, with research and development stations in Potchefstroom and Bapsfontein.

Seed production will be done in various locations across the country. Seed processing facilities are in Greytown and Bethal.