SBW International BV is an organization that offers many types of services on the basis of actual costs. Our major activity is plant micropropagation.
Over a hundred different crops are routinely produced on a large scale at two production sites, one in Roelofarendsveen (near Aalsmeer) in The Netherlands and one in Vinica, Macedonia.SBW International BV is specialized in micropropagation of difficult-to-handle crops such as Anthurium, Alstroemeria and Limonium.
Other services include the production of certified plants, germ plasm conservation, disease eradication, and several techniques to support breeding, such as embryo rescue, in-vitro fertilization, haploid induction, mutant production and doubling of chromosome
number.
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SBW's broad based
service package has something to offer every customer.
"SBW tries to
cater to the various needs of the market." With
breeding support techniques, mutagenesis, protocol
development - now for more than 350 different crops -
and virus eradication in crops SBW has even more to
offer the customer, according to Marketing Manager,
Nella Brak.
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It's not solely using its own resources
that SBW has managed to build up such a wide range
service package. "We work more and more in
conjunction with the customer, especially when it
comes to projects. If SBW is responsible for the
research, the customer can apply for subsidies from
various sources. In the past we developed the
protocols for everyone. Now the vision has changed and
this occurs more often on an exclusivity basis." Exclusive research
Research Director, Piet van der
Linde sums up the advantages of exclusive research.
"If the customer has a crop with good market
potential that is difficult to propagate outside
laboratory conditions, with a good protocol he can
make better progress than the competition for a
reasonable investment. If there is an existing method
for propagation that we can make more cost efficient,
then we use that method only for his plants." SBW
with all its expertise can consistently assist
breeders in the breeding process. "And if
exclusivity has been agreed to contractually, it is
possible to learn from each other by exchanging
information."
Breeding support
The interest in research related
to breeding support is growing. His offers solutions
to crucial problems. For example a breeder who wants
more variety in his assortment calls in SBW. More
colors, dwarfed or larger flowers, a different
flower-leaf ratio: the wish list is varied. Applying
techniques such as mutagenesis, embryo rescue, of
chromosome doubling, the researchers are able to aid
the customers in their search for a new or better sort.
Already roughly half of the alstroemeria varieties and
30% of the all lily types owe their existence to these
techniques. And at SBW they move unflaggingly on in
the search for new possibilities. SBW also carries out
research for customers cooperating with institutions
in diverse areas of expertise. For example the PPO
where the quarantine greenhouses are, Naktuinbouw
where ornamental plants are quality controlled,
Nak-agro for agricultural crops, the
Bloembollenkeuringsdienst, and Proeftuin Horst for
woody crops. Eighteen months ago SBW was granted a
license to hold plants that originate outside the
European community in quarantine. Van der Linde:
"The customer imports the plant material, we put
it into quarantine, organize the PD controls and we
then put it into the tissue culture process for the
customer. That creates, along with all our other
services, added value for the customer."
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