Dear readers,

Nicolás Wielandt joined KWS’ Executive Board in January 2022. He is in charge of Corn Europe, for which Peter Hofmann used to be responsible, and Corn South America, which he took over from Hagen Duenbostel. Nicolás Wielandt has been with KWS since 2006: He first worked at our company in his homeland of Chile before moving to Einbeck in 2011. In his posts as Country Manager, Regional Director and Head of the Business Units Sugarbeet and Corn Europe, he gradually assumed more and more responsibility. He has intimate knowledge of the diversity of the markets, as well as of the people, in the various regions where KWS operates. In the interview with Nicolás Wielandt you can find out more about the challenges and opportunities he sees for KWS in the South American and European corn markets.

The Business Unit Vegetables is being established and expanded step by step. The Italian vegetable seed company Geneplanta has been part of KWS for a year and is now called KWS Vegetables Italia. The founders of the company, which specializes in tomatoes, have not regretted the move: They are enthusiastic about the technological possibilities now available to them – and about our family business culture. You can read about what our new colleagues value highly about KWS in this issue.

KWS began its success story by breeding sugarbeet. Generations of breeders have rendered outstanding service to the “Queen of Crops” and ensured it has remained competitive as an important component of crop rotation. Our long-standing head of sugarbeet breeding, Andreas Loock, is now passing on the baton to his successor Jens Lein. In an interview they talk about current and future requirements for our sugarbeet seed and explain why close cooperation between research and breeding and the Business Units is so vital for success.

We hope you enjoy reading this edition of insideKWS!