2002 is getting off to a roaring start for the Germain’s Technology Group, which is experiencing huge increases in demand for high-volume seed priming services from both its European and North American companies.

In Europe, the uptake of AdvantageÒ primed sugar beet seed in the UK has broken initial expectations, by rising from just under a 10% share of the market, which it has had for several years, to orders for 30% of the spring 2002 plantings. Ten years of trial and five years of commercial grower data have firmly positioned GTG’s Advantage as a consistent and reliable aid to increase yield, as well as delivering many agronomic crop management improvements. This valuable tool is fast gathering popularity with growers who face increasing challenges to achieve consistent improvements in yields of sugar per hectare whilst managing the pressures of costs in this input-intensive crop. The Group also markets Advantage in Finland, where it has demonstrated excellent yield improvements in the beet crop since it was introduced in 1996.

In the USA, Advantage’s sister priming product PAT, marketed by Seed Systems is making good progress representing 10% of uptake in the overall sugarbeet market, and up to 80% in some areas of the Great Lakes.

The Group has long been involved with priming and upgrading horticultural seeds, such as lettuce and endive, carrot, onion, parsnip, tomato and pepper among the major group of species, as well as many species of flowers, herbs and tobacco seed. The addition of volume priming now gives the Group the flexibility to prime large batches of these seeds, where the batch sizes can run into several hundred kilos, keeping treatment lead-times to the minimum and allowing the process to dovetail perfectly with GTG’s pelleting and coating operations. This also ensures our seed company clients’ needs are met by helping them provide good service levels to their grower customers. In the field, GTG’s priming treatment in species such as carrots and onions provides quick and uniform establishment of seedlings, allowing the crop to grow, unchecked by early weeds. Uniform and early growth offer further agronomic benefits for the management of the crop, leading to higher yields of marketable quality produce.

The Group’s capabilities in priming large seed volumes have transformed the possibilities offered until recently to the seed industry at large for this type of technology. With systems that can efficiently and safely handle hundreds of kilogrammes or lbs of seed at a time, the Group is now offering quality priming on much larger volumes of major horticultural and Beta species than ever before, in a very cost effective way. This large-scale capability is also opening up opportunities for new, value-added priming products on agronomic seed species, which would formerly not have been candidates due to the scale involved. Of particular promise are novel oil and amenity seeds.