Milling & Baking News - March 21, 2023 - 16

TUES | 03 21 202 3
Hybrid wheat shocker: BASF halts
North America seed development
FLORHAM PARK, NJ. - With global
wheat supplies tightening due to climate
change and the war between Russia and
Ukraine, two of the world's biggest wheat
producers and exporters, finding ways to
maximize wheat yields and produce seed
that is resistant to drought and disease
has never been more important.
That's why BASF's announcement on
Feb. 28 that it would cease its activities in
hybrid wheat seed development in North
America was met with shock and disappointment
by US and Canadian wheat
growers and processors.
BASF Plant Science, a subsidiary of the
Germany-based chemical company BASF, in
recent years had been working to develop
in developing hybrid wheat seed. The
announcement caught BASF's stakeholders
and even its competitors off guard.
Jane DeMarchi, president of the North
American Millers' Association (NAMA),
told World Grain, a sister publication to
Milling & Baking News, that the unexpected
news was disappointing to NAMA members
" who welcome any investment in
wheat research and variety development. "
" Hybrid wheat represents a technological
breakthrough for wheat, " she said.
" Potentially, it can offer higher yields and
better stability and disease resistance,
among other things. It is a complicated
technology in the sense that creating this
seed economically has been a barrier. It's
been tried several times in the US, but
companies have struggled to figure out
how to do it economically. "
Ms. DeMarchi added those in the BASF
hybrid program were " very active participants
in the Wheat Quality Council in
terms of giving the millers and growers
an opportunity to preview and test their
varieties. "
" That's so important for the wheat value
chain, and we urge any private company
investing in wheat development to parhybrid
wheat seed in various parts of the
world, including North America. But BASF
last month said it would be cutting 2,600
jobs due to rising costs and weak earnings,
including its North American hybrid wheat
developers. However, it noted that it would
continue its development programs in
Europe and other countries.
In a letter to stakeholders, BASF said
" despite the tremendous efforts of our
team of experts, the results of our North
American trials have not achieved the
development goals we set to meet the
needs of growers in Canada and the
United States. "
Although it lagged China-based rival
Syngenta in terms of getting the seed to
market, BASF was seen as a key player
16
MILLING & BAKING NEWS
ticipate in that testing program, " she said.
" They were really doing all the right things.
They had terrific people in their program,
and I think everybody is sad for those folks. "
Steve Mercer, a spokesperson with US
Wheat Associates, said national wheat
organizations were aware of the BASF
announcement and look forward to
learning more from the company about
the decision to stop hybrid wheat development
work in the United States.
Even as BASF steps back, Syngenta
remains in the North America marketplace
and is closer to having a commercially
viable product than its competitors.
Paul Morano, head of North American
cereals for Syngenta, told World Grain
that the competition with BASF and
other companies working to develop
hybrid wheat varieties, such as Bayer and
Corteva, helped drive the sector forward.
" It sounds ridiculous to say this, but
we'd prefer someone else be in that market,
too, because it gives you people you
can bounce things off of and gives confidence
to the market that this is a viable
product. We believe strongly that it is. "
Although Syngenta is the leader in
the race to develop and market a hybrid
wheat seed in North America, Mr. Morano
noted producing a quality seed that is
affordable for farmers and profitable for
the seed company takes many years of
trial and error and considerable patience.
Syngenta has been working on developing
hybrid wheat since 2010, and some of its
researchers for much longer than that.
Syngenta last year launched its hybrid
wheat product into the marketplace,
making small quantities of seed available
through its dealers in the Dakotas and
Minnesota. This year, about 5,000 acres
of Syngenta hybrid spring wheat will be
planted in that region, he said, and the plan
is to expand the program on a much larger
scale to the hard red winter wheat growers
in the US Plains states, in the coming years.
Mr. Morano explained hybrid wheat
development involves " sterilizing " the
female plants and then pollinating them
using fertile male plants. This process
allows breeders to choose the best traits
from the male and female plants to produce
a seed that compares favorably to
conventional varieties, except for cost. It
also is seen by some as a safer alternative
to genetically modified wheat seed, which
also is being experimented with as an
alternative to conventional varieties.
But Mr. Morano, a former wheat
farmer from Kansas who has worked
for Syngenta for 20 years, stressed that
controlled cross-pollination is difficult to
execute.
" When you have to rely on pollen floating
through the air from another source
to get 100% pollination, the timing of all
those things make it extremely difficult, "
he said. " That's why it takes a while.
Roundup Ready (genetically modified)
soybeans took the market by storm in two
years. This is not that type of product. It
involves a much longer process. "
He said Syngenta's success in the conventional
wheat seed market in North
America - it holds a 40% market share in
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Milling & Baking News - March 21, 2023

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