Sakata gets closer to the customer

What is Sakata talking to the industry about right now?

Matthieu Maxant: We have a couple of exciting projects we are talking about. We decided a couple of years ago to change our approach to our customers. We adopted a new approach, taking them with us every step of the way, each season, in every field. We like to accompany our customer – the grower, distributor, plant breeder, or retailer at the end of the chain – to understand what they need so we can drive our breeding programmes towards innovation.

If we are speaking about the retailer and consumer, and what they like to see in a product, a good example is Metric. This is a long Dutch cucumber variety with a good resistance package and strong yields, but with an extra plus: its shine.

This is important because a lot of retailers are now asking for no plastic film to be wrapped around cucumbers, which then becomes an issue for consumers because they see that their cucumbers are no longer shiny. So, we decided to drive our breeding programme towards finding the shiniest cucumber, which means the product is still attractive for the consumer without being wrapped in plastic. This is one of the examples that we are showing people.

What about the growers themselves?

 MM: Going back to our new approach, we also have innovations that are more targeted to what growers need.

We are a leader in butternut, for example, and one of the developments in that category is the increasing presence of the disease Didymella. Nobody was able to introduce a variety that resisted this disease. Last year, however, we released a new variety – Orionit F1 – that had the same Brix but also offered Didymella resistance, an innovation that gives additional value to the grower.

This is how Sakata wants to be seen – giving innovation to growers, to retailers, and to consumers, finding what customers need, with that in turn driving our breeding programmes.

How difficult is it to balance all of these demands? To consider all of these needs and breed an array of traits in each product?

MM: The most relevant example of balancing traits is ToBRFV in tomatoes. A couple of years ago when this virus first arrived, one big company was taking the market. They had an elongated plum tomato that had the best taste, with the best Brix and so on, but with no resistance.

Breeders worked on ToBRFV resistance and brought some solutions, but the problem was these options had no taste. This is one of the major issues everybody now has.

Fortunately, Sakata has come up with something. It is still not ready to disclose, but soon we will be able to release a tomato with resistance but, importantly, also great taste.

Originally when ToBRFV came to the fore, we were not able to find the right balance between resistance and taste, and we did not want to push a variety out onto the market too quickly that didn’t have great taste. It is a difficult balance to get right.

How do the many challenges across the global market – geo-political instability, climate change and others – impact a company like Sakata?

MM: These issues do affect us, because we are seeing more and more barriers go up across different countries. Just a few years ago, everyone was thinking about how open the world was, and this is not the reality anymore.

Now, I would say that the company is not fully globalised, but rather is more focused on being localised, close to the customer. This creates fewer difficulties than being completely globalised, which adds more costs to operations. On the other hand, being closer to the customer means Sakata can move much more quickly and can be more reactive to challenges.

It is not only political challenges we face. More and more, we are having to stand up to changes in climatic conditions. The more local we are, and near to what the customer needs, the easier it is to understand and find solutions.

For example, a couple of years ago in Egypt we released a tomato that could resist very high summer temperatures. This is a very important characteristic that was not previously present in the market. A lot of tomatoes were already tolerant to heat, but to be able to resist peak temperatures, this was very new.

The more that we as a seed company can deliver these things, the better. And to do it properly, we need to be localised and near to the customers.

How about technology? How are technological developments benefitting Sakata?

MM: First of all we look at data, and the AI behind this. We are obviously an innovation-driven sector, but today we are not sure that we are able to analyse all the data points that we can take from technology. Clearly, AI will help us with the sheer volume of data we have. I am convinced that this will be the next step in technological advancements that benefits us.

Another example is robotics. We see that in our mature markets, we have less availability of labour, and it is increasingly difficult to find people to work. Robotics will help with this. You need to have people to harvest broccoli, to pick tomatoes, and other tasks. But this labour is not present, because we have a declining population, and the next generation does not want to work in these types of conditions.

Robotics will be a game-changer. Take broccoli as an example – genetically, the varieties produced today are not ready to be harvested by a machine. So that means we must adapt. If broccoli is to be machine-harvested, the head must be elongated so that the harvester can pick it. And if you are using manual labour, you may go two or three times to the field to harvest, but with robots, you need to do it in one go for greater efficiency and cost effectiveness.

However, this is a long-term vision. Today, I am not sure that the seed industry is ready to fully embrace robotics. Everyone is working on it, but we are not quite ready as a sector.