The process of merging several Swedish sugar factories in 1907 also generated the start of a comprehensive breeding programme for sugar beet. The breeding work was undertaken in the small village of Hilleshög in the south of the country. The target was to develop sugar beet varieties adapted to Swedish conditions. By the 1920’s, the needs of the fairly restricted Swedish market were already being met, but export possibilities appeared for the Hilleshög seed and, in order to get closer to foreign markets, a daughter company was founded in the Netherlands in 1924. This became a turning point in the history of Hilleshög – from the role of local Swedish supplier of sugar beet seed to a presence on the European market. From this date onwards, the company increased its presence on sugar beet markets across Europe and eventually throughout the world. First, genetic monogerm variety In 1966, Hilleshög made a major advance in the genetic improvement of sugar beet by introducing the first genetic monogerm variety that combined monogermity with high yield. This improvement dramatically changed the management of the crop and the new variety – Monohill – made it possible for sugar beet growers to drill to a stand. As a result, the labour intensive singling work disappeared. The new drilling technique placed very high demands on the achievement of good seed quality. A major step in the aim of achieving the best possible seed quality was to move the Company’s seed multiplication from Sweden to France and Italy. Monohill was an extremely successful variety and retained its popularity for more than twenty years.
Hilleshög remained part of the Swedish sugar company until 1968. It then became an independent company, whilst still retaining close links with the sugar company. In1986, Hilleshög was bought by the Swedish car company Volvo, which, at that time, were looking to expand their horizons. Three years later Hilleshög was sold to the Swiss pharmaceutical company Sandoz, who were already one of the world’s leading seed companies, with a wide range of crops and already developing the breeding tools of the future.
Since 2001, Hilleshög has been the global sugar beet brand of Syngenta, a company dedicated to agriculture through its Plant Protection, Seeds and Plant Science divisions, serving farmers throughout the world.
Supplying growers around the world
In the last twenty years, Hilleshög has extended its activities to all major sugar beet growing areas around the world - from the USA, to Central Europe, Russia, and China. Along with more and more elaborate traditional breeding methods, a number of new molecular breeding tools have been developed in order to speed up breeding progress.
Today, Hilleshög ranks No. 2 in the global sugar beet seeds market and Hilleshög varieties are used on more than 1 million hectares of arable land each year, from Chile eastwards to China and from Morocco to Finland
Striving for the success of the sugar beet crop
Global sugar consumption is growing at about 3% per year and, in order to compete successfully with sugar cane for a share of that growth, the sugar beet crop needs to improve its efficiency of production - both to show its contribution to sustainable farming and to supply consumers with a quality product. At Hilleshög, we are convinced that breeding will play a major role in shaping the future of the sugar beet crop and we are dedicated to remaining a major contributor to its success.
Syngenta Seeds Limited
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