A guerrilla crop becomes market leader

Our oilseed rape has emerged from its niche to become a high-flyer in Europe. Its rise illustrates the importance of perseverance and foresight.

Tobias Dittmann speaks with confidence when he talks about oilseed rape over the past decades. “It has always been cross-crop,” says the former Head of the Sub Business Unit Oilseed Rape. “We’ve leveraged the ideal sales structure for oilseed rape in every market.” In Northern and Eastern Europe, the Cereals team assumed responsibility for oilseed rape sales, while in Belgium the Sugarbeet and in the other countries the Corn teams usually built the local structures. “We’re the guerrilla crop,” says Tobias with a grin. Nevertheless: Oilseed rape flew under the radar for a long time.

And today? “We enjoy a completely different level of visibility,” says Andrea Richter, who succeeded Tobias as Head of the SBU in January. “Six years ago, hardly any farmer would have thought of approaching KWS’ consultants about oilseed rape – we weren’t that visible in most markets, especially in our home market of Germany, but in France and Southeastern Europe we’ve already had our first successes. Now we’ve gained promotion to the top flight.” KWS sells varieties in 30 countries, is on its way to becoming the market leader in France, is the front-runner in Southeastern Europe and has also made phenomenal advances in Germany. It now sells 400,000 to 500,000 units a year.

Several correct decisions

Those achievements are the result of systematic and successful breeding. Key groundwork was also laid at an early stage. Tobias’ predecessor Klaus Schlünder had decided to focus on Southeastern Europe at a time when other breeding companies were not strongly represented there. “That meant we were able to grow early on. Klaus also spoke out strongly in favor of UMBERTO KWS when it wasn’t clear whether we would approve this variety or not. UMBERTO KWS has been our top seller in recent years and has gone through the roof in many countries.”

The decision to carve out oilseed rape from the BU Corn as a separate Business Unit was a further boost. “That gave us a team that was fully dedicated to oilseed rape” – even if there were only four colleagues to begin with (there are now 11). From 2016, the adapted breeding strategy began to focus on specific plant traits, in particular insect and fungal resistance, and breeding centered on hybrids. One result of that, for example, is our InsectPROTECT genetics.
How did this become possible? “Another important step was the acquisition of the breeding company Momont in 2014,” emphasizes Andrea. While KWS had previously cooperated mainly with universities in research and breeding, it now had two of its own oilseed rape breeding programs in one fell swoop. They have a slightly different regional orientation and are managed by Marie-Aude Vanhersecke and Andreas Gertz. “As a result, we are now reaping the rewards of this work.”

Preparing for the future

However, Andrea also knows what that means for her colleagues: “In recent years, the oilseed rape team and the breeders have initiated and boosted our progress, and now our goal is to build on the success with the team and to materialize it.” The head of the SBU is convinced that her team will master the task. “We have an excellent pipeline with new varieties from our breeding.” The task now is to expand the structures that go hand in hand with growing demand: “Field production, logistics and sales are already doing a very good job and are an important factor in oilseed rape because the timing is tight,” says Andrea. There are only a few weeks between harvesting of the varieties at KWS in June/July and sowing of them in customers’ fields. “We’re gaining market share because we’re faster and more professional than the others. I take my hat off to our logistics and propagation teams!” adds Tobias.

The increasing visibility of our oilseed rape varieties requires an even stronger focus on customers. “We need to create the basis for our sales force throughout Europe to be trained, to know oilseed rape and to be able to offer good consulting,” says Andrea. In addition – and this is where marketing comes into play – solutions to farmers’ problems are to be communicated in a new image campaign under the slogan #OneStepAhead. In line with our Strategic Planning 2031, these solutions will also include digital tools. In short: Whether Agro Service, breeding, sales or logistics, Andrea says “we are preparing ourselves for every additional percentage point of market growth and will rock Europe.”
When Tobias, who is now responsible for hybrid barley, looks back, he concludes: “In oilseed rape, we’ve learned that it pays to have staying power. It’s wonderful to work in a company that thinks in terms of generations and doesn’t chase short-term success. The new divisions will definitely benefit from this mindset.” |