Monsanto Company has completed its proposed acquisition of De Ruiter Seeds Group BV.

The Dutch holding company, that owns and operates De Ruiter Seeds, was sold for €546 million (£432m) in cash at current exchange rates, net debt.

Monsanto will start to transition the De Ruiter Seeds business into its vegetable seeds division alongside its other business units, Seminis and the International Seed Group Inc (ISG).

Monsanto’s vegetable seed business will serve its customers through three dedicated platforms: protected culture, open field and regional vegetable seed businesses.

De Ruiter Seeds will serve the protected-culture vegetable seed market, Seminis will serve the open-field vegetable seed market, and ISG will serve customers of regional seed businesses. Until the transition is complete, all three business units will operate as usual.

Consuelo Madere, Monsanto vegetable seed lead, said: “We look forward to working with the people at De Ruiter Seeds and identifying new opportunities for us to combine our strengths to deliver new innovations to growers and customers."

Biense Visser, De Ruiter Seeds' president and chief executive, said he is also looking forward to the future. “We are convinced that the future of our company is best with Monsanto, because of their world-class technology and the strategic opportunities for our company. It will allow us to strengthen our product leadership strategy,” he said.

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