100 % Austria

From breeding to multiplication all the way to production, our seeds are 100 % made in Austria.

100 % Austria

one-stop

Saatbau organises a perfectly coordinated value chain from breeding over multiplication to production and marketing. This allows us to provide farmers with enough high-quality seed and to supply the food producers with home-grown raw materials.

Maize from Schönering

Domestic value creation

Plant breeders have a great responsibility at the very beginning of the agricultural value chain. After all, seeds are the basis of good harvests and have an impact at every level of the value creation process.

For more than 40 years, Saatbau Linz has operated its own maize breeding programme. The seeds produced at our breeding station in Schönering are characterised by excellent grain quality, good healthiness and processibility with high added value.

Our breeders develop 10 to 15 new maize varieties each year, preparing and harvesting 119,000 trial plots specifically for this purpose. The yield and characteristics of each maize ear are analysed and the best varieties are selected for cross-breeding. Breeding a new variety takes a minimum of 5 years. Regional breeding has the advantage, that the varieties are optimally adapted to the diversity of local conditions and purposes and that subsequent multiplication and production create added value for the domestic agriculture.

Until the seeds of a new variety can be made available to the market in sufficient quantities, we rely on our experienced farmers for multiplication. For them, this is a way to produce high-quality seeds while generating added value for their agricultural undertaking as compared to producing for consumption.

In 2020, seed maize was cultivated on a surface of 9,827 hectares in Austria. More than a quarter of the surface was dedicated to the muliplication of varieties from Schönering. In Upper Austria alone, 159 farmers were engaged in this responsible exercise.

The quality seeds produced in diligent multiplication programmes are treated at our new seed maize facility in Geinberg (drying, cleaning etc) and then packaged for sale. Each season, our staff produce around 950,000 units, of which 90% are exported.

Thanks to the enormous expansion of our production capacity, it has become possible for many farmers to engage in the new and profitable production area of seed multiplication.

As in other ecomomic sectors where patent law and copyright protect intellectual property, this is also a precondition for refinancing the expenses incurred during the breeding progress.

Every year, there is a turnover of seeds to the value of 140 million Euro. Turnover in 2013 according to the report ‘Die Österreichische Saatgutwirtschaft 2013’ (Austrian seed industry):

  • Maize: 56.1 million Euro
  • Cereal: 29.6 million Euro
  • Other: 57 million Euro

By buying Original SAATBAU seeds, farmers are supporting

a profitable, quality-concious and competitive agriculture.

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