Breeding Accel invests in the future

The laboratory at PlantXperience in Wilp, the Netherlands now has a brand new molecular department with new users. The five breeders who work together under the name Breeding Accel jointly inaugurated the facility. Sporting brand new lab coats, chairman Peter van de Pol (Schoneveld Breeding) and Thijs van Dijk (Fresh Forward) symbolically opened the lab. By cutting the ribbon, they literally opened new doors. The partners are enhancing their joint knowledge sharing with protocol development and the search for markers. Their aim is to shorten the time to market of their partners’ various crops.

Joint research
The five companies have invested in the latest equipment and are now bringing together part of their research capacity in Wilp. Molecular biologists, bioinformaticians and phytopathologists work together here on innovative molecular breeding techniques. Because these techniques are relatively new in their industry, the Breeding Accel biologists can work on them together in the new lab.

Early conclusions
The joint investment has reduced the time to market of starting material and the lead time of the breeding cycle. Plants do not need to be grown to maturity for conclusions to be drawn, as distinctive properties are already revealed at DNA level. Molecular biologist Koen Pelgrom: “I can now see from the genes which starting material produces the most beautiful color blue, for example.” And because the molecular biologists are using the lab together, protocols also take shape more quickly, as they can now ascertain faster which approach works best and which aspects need more attention.

Speeding up
By uniting research capacity and investing jointly in equipment, Breeding Accel, as an innovative knowledge platform, can speed up processes in a targeted and focused manner. The partners have no crop overlaps. By bringing together the diversity of knowledge from fruit, cut flower and pot plant crops, they are making more in-depth pre-competitive research possible.

Breeding Accel
Breeding Accel was established in 2014 and consists of KP Holland, Interplant Roses, Schoneveld Breeding, Sion Young Plants and Fresh Forward. All partners face the same challenges, but each one in a different crop. By working together smartly, the companies can help each other progress. To quote Peter van de Pol, Breeding Accel’s motto is “It’s often quicker on your own, but you get much further together”.

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