Production

For cereal varieties (wheat or barley), ASUR produces the first generations of seed (known as ‘technical seed’) itself, before entrusting large-scale propagation to partner Seed Multiplication Establishments.

Technical seeds are produced locally by a network of experienced seed multipliers who are long-standing partners of ASUR.

ASUR’s laboratory, which holds official certification for its quality analyses, enables all the necessary seed tests (germination capacity, varietal purity, absence of weed seeds, etc.) to be carried out in-house before the seeds are distributed.

With over 30 years’ expertise, ASUR Plant Breeding has developed unique know-how in the hybridisation of straw cereals, from plant breeding to seed production technologies.

ASUR produces a large proportion of its own varieties and also supports certain licensed seed producers in some countries.

Hybrid wheat multiplication fields consist of alternating strips of male and female lines. The female line is treated with the hybridisation agent Croisor®100 before being pollinated by the male line.

Each hybrid wheat multiplication field requires an average of 7 to 8 inspections by ASUR Plant Breeding’s production engineers and accredited technicians, under the supervision of official crop inspectors. After harvest, the seeds are cleaned, treated and packaged in batches (ranging from 500,000 to 12 million seeds) by partner seed production facilities, and either marketed directly under licence or supplied to the distribution network across Europe.