Wageningen, The Netherlands and Yokohama, Japan
November 27, 2013

Sakata Seed Corporation signed an agreement to acquire a stake in Genetwister Technologies B.V.. Sakata Seed Corporation, listed on the Japanese stock market, is a world leader in breeding and producing vegetable and ornamental seed and vegetative cuttings. With this alliance Sakata wants to boost its marker-assisted breeding endeavors with the most-advanced genome sequencing and gene analysis techniques in order to accelerate the development of novel flower and vegetable varieties.

Hiroshi Sakata, President of Sakata Seed Corporation and Douwe de Boer, Managing Director of Genetwister

Douwe de Boer, Managing Director of Genetwister, comments: “We are very happy with this business alliance that coincides with Sakata’s 100 year anniversary. Sakata Seed Corporation is a very well respected and established company all over the world and this partnership exemplifies the importance we see in our presence in the rapidly expanding Asian market. The alliance is expected to quickly benefit both Sakata as well as Genetwister.”

Hiroshi Sakata, President of Sakata Seed Corporation, comments: “Through this equity participation, Sakata Seed Corporation will have an access to Genetwister Technology’s most advanced plant genomics techniques. With the research partnership with Genetwister, Sakata expects to enhance efficiency in the development of its innovative vegetable and flower varieties and to accelerate their introduction to the market.”

About Genetwister
Genetwister Technologies B.V. is an innovative Dutch biotechnology company, with an international position in commercially applied biotechnology of agri- and horticultural crops. Genetwister is an expert in identification and isolation of molecular markers for genomic breeding, metabolic engineering and diagnostics using high throughput technology for sequencing, expression profiling and functional genomics. Genetwister’s bio-informatics group develops proprietary software for database management, data-analysis and data-mining.
More information on Genetwister can be found on www.genetwister.nl.

About Sakata Seed Corporation
Sakata focusses on production and sales of vegetable seeds, flower seeds, grass seeds, vegetable seedlings, flower seedlings, bulbs and agricultural/gardening materials. The main crops include Crucifers like cabbage and broccoli, Cucurbits like melon and cucumber, Solanaceae, like tomato and pepper and a large range of ornamental crops. Sakata breeders around the world work diligently to develop varieties that offer superior performance and set new standards for the industry. For more information on Sakata Seed Corporation See www.sakataseed.co.jp/corporate/english/index.html.

Website: http://www.genetwister.nl/

Published: November 27, 2013