Dear readers,

An eventful year is drawing to a close. While the measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic were still the dominant issue in January, the war in Ukraine marked a serious watershed moment. The people there are in fear of their lives every day and now have to brave the freezing temperatures the winter brings. KWS opened its first foreign location in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, in 1900 and thus has a particularly long and close relationship with the country and its people. The way in which our colleagues in Ukraine are helping to maintain production and seed business and keep agriculture going is nothing short of an incredible achievement. We are therefore all the more delighted that Oleksandr Fedorov, who is responsible for corn and sunflower seed business in Ukraine, talks about living and working under extremely adverse conditions in this issue of insideKWS.

The Annual Shareholders’ Meeting on December 6 saw the previously announced changes on the Executive Board and Supervisory Board take effect. We have devoted a special issue of insideKWS to Andreas J. Büchting, the outgoing Chairperson of the Supervisory Board. Hagen Duenbostel’s two-year cooling-off period is beginning, after which he will return to KWS to chair the Supervisory Board. Philip von dem Bussche will be its Chairperson in the meantime. Stefan Hell has been appointed as a further member of the Supervisory Board. Read more about the changes on the Executive and Supervisory Boards in the article “See you again, Hagen Duenbostel!”

We have already reported about the Strategic Planning 2031 in insideKWS. It defines the path we want to take to achieve our objectives. In this issue, we launch a series in which we wish to present various projects that are specifically derived from and illustrate the SP31: All of us help implement the strategy in our everyday work.