Dr. Christopher Ahrens, a member of the Board of Management of KWS Kleinwanzlebener Saatzucht AG, officially opened the company's new preparation plant for sugar beet seed at its
headquarters in Einbeck, Germany, on October 16, 1997. Some 200 guests representing 30 countries of the world attended the opening ceremony.

The new seed preparation plant, which went on stream in time for the next production season, is a major investment as part of KWS's ongoing efforts to improve seed quality. The plant supplements the existing processing facility at this location by providing an additional input capacity of 2 t/h. At a total investment of about 20 million DM, this plant sets new qualitative
and quantitative standards in international preparation of sugar beet seeds. Decentralised cleaning facilities located in the multiplication regions of France and Italy are also part of the
investment programme of the KWS Group.

The process engineers of KWS's seed technology research department planned and constructed the new facility in about three years. Its module design offers a large degree of technical flexibility to meet the increasing demands of the seed market in terms of varieties, seed species and methods of treatment. The facility has an integrated process control system for fully automatic monitoring of the various processing steps.

Amongst other things, the plant offers the following new features:
each seed batch is sorted into different calibres, individually treated during the entire process and stored in separate containers for further processing each seed batch is individually polished according to it size and shape with a machine which was specially developed at KWS for this purpose each seed batch is completely supervised and the individual processing steps are documented according to the strict requirements of KWS's QM system.

Parallel to this substantial investment in seed preparation technology, KWS has intensified the use of modern biotechnology as a supplement to its conventional plant breeding methods. Another 30 million DM will be invested in a new research building at Einbeck called the biotechnology centre, which will enable a closer integration of conventional and biotechnology methods in plant breeding. These investments create the prerequisites for further increases in yields of the KWS sugar beet varieties and thus help secure the future of sugar beet cultivation in Europe.

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