INCOTEC in
Japan and East Asia
INCOTEC Japan started its operations in the spring
of 1997. In its first three years, the company has
grown rapidly. Personnel number grew from 5 persons to
15 persons. Customers now include the majority of the
breeding companies in Japan. This progress was based
on a growing product range. Local research has become
crucial in further improvements and expansion of this
range.
What does INCOTEC offer to this
market and to the East
Asian markets?
Around the world, INCOTEC offers a wide range of technologies. In Japan and East Asia, a
number of technologies have proven to be quite
valuable for seed companies and growers.
![](filmcoatingwithfungicides.gif)
INCOTEC offers a wide range of technologies in
Japan including economic and high quality filmcoating.
This is most attractive for large and medium sized
seeds that need a protection against seed and
soil-borne diseases during germination and emergence.
The total volume processed is reaching 300 tons of
seed per year.
Common trials with customers to determine the best
combination of ingredients, the type and dosage of
filmcoating liquids are done. One customer has told us
that the filmcoating has saved the variety which was
almost unusable due to poor seedling vigor and
damping-off.
![](seedpriming.gif)
A very high percentage of all products made by
INCOTEC in Japan whether it be filmcoated, pelleted or
upgraded raw seeds are primed. The germination energy
is very important in this market as growers are very
critical and follow plant emergence intensively. The
climate in the Japanese archipelago differs
dramatically from region to region and from season to
season. Tolerance to stress indicated by high vigor is
very important to all in the seed business and
growers.
![](primingforelimination.gif)
An example of this is eXccit priming of brassica
seeds which eliminates Xanthomonas campestris
campestris on such seeds. Brassica seeds are a major
export item for the Japanese seed business. eXccit
priming is one of the tools available to the Japanese
seed business to control this problem.
![](accesstodiseasetesting.gif)
In Japan no commercial seed testing laboratory is
available. This is a problem for especially the medium
size and small seed companies as access to testing for
seed-borne disease is limited.
INCOTEC Japan is
providing to its customers the access to the services
of the seed testing laboratory of NAKG.
This is
especially important for quality control on eXccit
primed brassica’s and other species.
![](pelletingnewspecies.gif)
The experience of INCOTEC world-wide and the wide
range of INCOTEC pelleting technologies make a fast
development of pellets for new species possible.
The Japanese vegetable market is quite
sophisticated with a wide variety of crops grown
locally and a substantial import from countries like
China, US, New Zealand, Europe. The consumers taste
for new food items (especially of Italian origin)
offers a change for innovative growers to capitalise
on new crops. An example is rucola, a salad crop from
Italy.
Also some flower species like Sedum are used in
innovative new use, like roof construction and
decoration.
![](factorsofsuccess.jpg)
What does it take to succeed
in Japan?
![](locallanguage.gif)
INCOTEC had to adapt its systems to apply Japanese
language in the documentation for the customers and
correct internal documentation of for instance variety
names.
![](npelleting.gif)
![](tests.gif)
Laboratory testing of
germination in trays.
The high cost of land and
labor makes it
impractical to erect a greenhouse or plastic house for
germination testing in trays. A test was developed in
the laboratory to grow seedlings to a large enough
state to judge the number of useable plants.
![](localspecies.gif)
The Japanese market has a significant number of
vegetable species that are unknown or not common in
Europe and the US. An example is burdock seed a major
vegetable with 13,200 ha in Japan, known in the west
only as a medicinal plant with almost no commercial
production.
![](stress.gif)
Stress tests and priming
Prediction of shelflife of the products by means of
accelerated ageing tests or CD-tests is becoming a
standard practice for some products.
The resistance to stress during storage,
germination and emergence is one of the most important
characteristics of seed. As farmers do not usually
employ climate control automation, temperatures can be
very high in tunnels used for seedling production,
even in spring time. Also field crops like carrot and
spinach are affected strongly by the high temperatures
and occasionally heavy rains in summer.
On
the other hand in early spring in northern Japan, with
snow still laying on the ground, it is impossible for
growers to maintain uniform high temperatures in
plastic tunnels for crops like melon to get even
germination.
In some regions acid soil is neutralised using lime
and other minerals and mixed with other components to
make seedling soil. This practice results in a high
EC, which affects especially lower vigor lettuce
seedlots.
Priming of seeds is often effective to solve these
problems. In some cases the pellet or filmcoat needs
to be adapted to maintain the best possible stress
resistance of the primed seed.
![](customerpreferences.gif)
Packing in
bottles
Pellets are most commonly packed in clear plastic
bottles. Customers and growers appreciate the nice
presentation of the pellets through the plastic. These
bottles are sealed with an aluminium seal and closed
with a cap. INCOTEC is the only company using
environmental friendly PP bottles.
Packing in
plastic bags
Other pellets with high strength can be packed in
plastic bags of a special laminate material. Bags are
economic to use, easy to dispose and offer a nice
presentation like the bottles.
Enlarging pellets,
reducing size of pellet and changing pellet
properties.
Bunching onion and onion seeds are sown for
historical reasons in a large pellet: 4.25 mm in size.
Technically this is possible but not very economic
with about double the production cost. Overtime the
market could adapt to a smaller pellet, 3.5 mm,
leading to economic and technical advantages.
Pellets of tomato and pepper seeds were reduced in
size from 4.5 and 6.0 mm to 3.5 mm to fit the
pneumatic sowing machines used in Japan and Korea.
Some sowing machines used in Japan and Korea
utilise an unique sowing principle. Market leader for
sowing of vegetable seeds is a sowing machine of
Yazaki: Easy Seeder. This machine tends to crush
pellets between the roll and the guiding plate.
Increasing hardness of the pellet does not help,
special pellet properties are needed to prevent this
crushing from happening.
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