Russia's seed consortium to launch new sunflower hybrids on Russian market by 2027

MOSCOW. Dec 12 (Interfax) - Russia's National Seed Selection and Growing Consortium, which was formed this year, will develop 15 sunflower hybrids by 2030, the first of which will be put on the market by 2027.

Ruseed, Bio-Ton, Efko Seed Production, the VNIIMK federal research center and the South Ural State Agrarian University have signed an agreement on a scientific and production partnership under which they plan to develop 15 new high-yield sunflower hybrids with greater biological efficiency, the consortium said in a press release.

"Thus, the consortium has joined the federal scientific and technical program to develop agriculture to 2030," the release said.

The cost of the project to 2030 is estimated at 19.1 billion rubles and the first batches of new hybrids will hit the market in 2027, Ruseed's press service told Interfax. Shipments will initially amount no less than 150 tonnes, but are expected to grow to at least 13,000 tonnes by 2030.

All participants in the process - geneticists, plant breeders, seed producers, processers and product producers - have joined forces for the first time to develop the products, the release said.

"VNIIMK researchers will breed new promising sunflower hybrids with set agronomic characteristics, and Ruseed will provide its production facilities, competencies in the area of seed production and specialists. The project will be carried out at a seed selection and production complex in Adygeya. Trial cultivation of the hybrids will take place on the land of agricultural corporation Bio-Ton, and introduction into production will take place at the facilities of Efko. South Ural State Agrarian University will work on human resourcing for the project and train specialists in the area of selection and seed production taking into account the demands of the market," the release said.

"Seed breeders and producers currently face the strategic challenge of overcoming the dependence on imports. For sunflower, for example, the share of domestic seeds now amounts to a little more than 20%, but by 2030 we can already increase it to 80%. The goal of our joint work within the consortium is not just to produce a quality domestic product, but to ensure its commercialization and make it sought-after on the market," Ruseed managing partner Mark Gekht was quoted as saying in the press release.

The National Seed Selection and Growing Consortium was formed in February 2023 to combine the efforts of business and science in the area of seed selection and supply sunflower seeds to farmers.