1. Loop 2008 FSS in the view of breeders Ernst A. Loop TAIEX-Meeting, 4. March 2008, Tallinn

2. Loop 2008 SAATEN-UNION GmbHEisenstr. 12 30916 Isernhagen HBSAATEN-UNION GmbHEisenstr. 12 30916 Isernhagen HB SAATEN-UNION Group, a Merger of medium sized Plant Breeders – founded in 1965 – SAATEN-UNION Resistenzlabor GmbH SAATEN-UNION Versuchsstation Moosburg Member companies SAATEN-UNION France SAATEN-UNION UK SAATEN-UNION Romania SAATEN-UNION Poland SAATEN-UNION Czech Republic SAATEN-UNION Hungary Subsidiaries Breeding cooperationService cooperationMarketing cooperation Czech Republic Poland SAATEN-UNION Russia

3. Loop 2008 SAATEN-UNION in Figures Vermehrungsflächen nach Ländern (inkl. SUR) SAATEN-UNION Group – Europe: ~ 780 – Germany: ~ 600 among them ~ 40 trainees plus seasonal workers SAATEN-UNION GmbH– Isernhagen: ~ 70 Number of employees Turnover development GmbH (Group) 1965 5 Mio. € 1975 51 Mio. € 1985 74 Mio. € 1995 102 Mio. € 2003 121 Mio. € (138) 2004127 Mio. € (149) 2005 133 Mio. € (157) 2006 138 Mio. € (165) 2007155 Mio. € (190)

4. Loop 2008 Vermehrungsflächen nach Ländern (inkl. SUR, ohne D)

5. Loop 2008 Breeding Activities of SAATEN-UNION Wheat +hybrid wheat Barley (for use in malting and fodder) Rye (+ hybrid) Oats Triticale Maize Oilseed rape (winter and spring hybrids) Fodder Beet Green Manure Crops (fodder rape, radish, phacelia, mustard, fodder peas) Grasses and Clover Other Crops (sunflowers, linseed, fodder cale, calendula, etc.) Pulses ( peas, faba beans, lupins) Nematode Resistant Intermediate Crops (fodder radish, mustard, buckwheat)

6. Loop 2008 Royalties for cereals in EU 15 and EU 25 2006/2007

7. Loop 2008 Situation of private Breeding in Europe is critical !! Since year 2000 the picture of private breeding has dramatically changed. Many private breeding companies disappeared or have been taken over:  Monsanto sold Hybritech 2000 and DuPont Hybrinova 2002  SB Linz and Probstdorf merged to SZ Donau(2001)  Benoist(F) has been sold to Syngenta (2001)  Zelder(NL) has been taken over by Golden Harvest (2003)  Golden Harvest has been taken over by Syngenta (2006)  Monsanto sold conventional cereal breeding to RAGT(2005)  Advanta has been sold to Limagrain(2005)  SW reduced 50% of it´s staff(2006)  DLF took over Mommersteg(2007)  Pajbjerg and ABED merged with DLA to Nordic Seed(2007)  Only 4-5 international cereal breeder will remain in the next decade !

8. Loop 2008 Research and Development of SAATEN-UNION Classical Breeding (Pedigree Crossing, Field & Nursery Selection, Laboratory Analysis) Biotechnology (Tissue Culture, Molecularbiology, Moleculare Markers, Gene Technology) Breeding Programmes for Over 30 Crops 16 Breeding Stations with 65 Testing Sites In Germany and 38 other Countries 13 % of Turnover for Research and Development

9. Loop 2008 Different Objectives of Breeding ? Rang OfficialsFarmerIndustry 1. Resistence Yield/Profit Quality 2. Quality agronomical Values Resistence 3. agronomical Values QualitätYield 4. Yield Resistence

10. Loop 2008 Yield Development Winter-Wheat Germany 1990 – 2001 Official Statistic

11. Loop 2008 Trend of WW-Yield in different Quality-Groups C, B, A u. E The genetic/breeding based Yield-Increase is continuing! CBAE Increase 1980-2002 Total, dt/ha25,424,523,823,0 per Year, dt/ha1,31,21,31,0 dt/ha in the years... 198074,672,170,167,7 1990 85,082,279,977,1 2000 98,495,192,589,3 expected 2010103-112100-11098-10893-99

12. Loop 2008 Breeding Progress 1980-1990 and 1995-2002(in official trials in DE) Time 1980-19901995-2002 Progress average rating Mildew3,3 2,6 -0,7 Yellow-rust3,9 2,6 -1,3 Brown-rust4,3 3,9 -0,4 Septoria5,1 4,3 -0,8 Summe Diseases -3,2 APS-Yield7,07,1 Grain-Yield, dt/ha 75,7 92,3 +16,6 dt/ha Yield-Increase in % 106 129 +23% Grain-yield 1980 71,6dt/ha=100%.

13. Loop 2008 Progress in Quality-Wheat Breeding 1975 bis 2002 - Resistence und Fungize-cost -

14. Loop 2008 Qualitäts-Zuchtziele für die Verwertungsrichtungen von Weizen Quality-Breeding Objectives for different Use of Wheat Quality- Objective Backing Feed Cockies Ethanol Burning Volume highlow Dough normal Falling Nr. high low Raw-Protein highlow Zeleny highlow Water-uptake highlow Flour-Yield high Gluten-Quality highlowhigh % A-Starch high Ethanol-Yield high

15. Loop 2008 Schema of Breeding (Crossing 2008)

16. Loop 2008 SU- Trials in D

17. Loop 2008 Costs for breeding are increasing To succeed with top-level new varieties private breeders have to use latest bio- technologies like di-haploids, cell culture, marker technologies, etc.. These techniques are increasing the cost for breeding every year. These circumstances have caused the dramatic change in the structure of private cereal breeding during the last decade. Due to the low profitability of conventional cereal breeding big multinationals like Monsanto sold their cereal breeding activities, other multinational breeding companies like Advanta were cut into pieces and sold as well. Several small breeding companies just disappeared and even leading cereal breeders had to cut their staff and tried to reduce their costs.

18. Loop 2008 Concept of Saaten-Union(SU) for cereal varieties in the Baltics Seed of new higher yielding varieties will be only sold by Saaten-Union or via their distribution partners to those farms who sigh a contract with SU with following conditions:  For every ha of sown with Farm-Saved-Seed(FSS) the farmer has to pay 5 EURO to SU for SU-varieties  A person empowered by SU is allowed to control fields, harvest results and relevant book-keeping of the farm twice a year  Grain of mentioned varieties can be sold to other farms for use of seed only with the written permission of SU  If one of the conditions 1.-3. are not fulfilled the farm has to pay a punishment of 5 € per ha farm area

19. Loop 2008  Royalty for Farm- Saved- Seed(FSS):  Royalty for Farm- Saved- Seed(FSS):  A key-question for the future of conventional private cereal breeding  The achievements of conventional cereal breeding by private breeding companies have shown a remarkable success during the last decades. But the public recognition and the even the respect at farmer levels has been very limited to this.  While the results of breeding via international foundations was even respected as the “Green Revolution”, the “private” breeding achieved even higher benefits regarding yield and quality increase joined by a better resistance against harmful pests and diseases of their varieties.  But these private breeding companies have to collect royalties to finance these achievements. Even in there home markets of Western Europe nearly all private cereal breeders are suffering due to the increasing level of FSS.

20. Loop 2008 Other actions with success against use of FSS The use of certified seed has not only a positive effect on the income of breeders via payment of royalties. Following cases have shown advantages in the whole food chain:  Russia: all main malteries are insisting in the use of certified seed for contracts of commodity malting barley with farmers; the use of FSS for malting barley in Russia is meanwhile smaller than in Germany  BARILLA, Italy: the biggest processor of wheat in Europe is purchasing only lots of one variety and fulfilled specifications, incl. use of certified seed  Canada: for OSR together with the switch to GMO-variety only hybrids are mainly distributed  The Ukraine: 2007 nearly all western plant breeders started to offer only hybrid-OSR

21. Loop 2008