Crites adds Vining Peas to Elsoms New European Business

Crites Seeds Inc (Moscow, USA) has joined the recently announced partnership between Elsoms Seeds (Spalding, UK) and Crookham Company (Caldwell, USA), adding high performance vining pea varieties to the current sweetcorn portfolio. For over a decade, Crites has been working successfully with Elsoms to bring well-known varieties such as Ambler, Logan, and Tomahawk to the UK. The new collaboration will extend that partnership ultimately delivering new varieties uniquely tailored to the needs of European growers.

″Elsoms, and indeed Crookhams, are both family businesses, just like ours,″ said Andy Johnson, CEO of Crites Seed Inc. ″We know them well, and we know they share our values, so we’re excited to be joining this partnership. Crites has a long history of breeding superior pea varieties, with a portfolio that serves processor and fresh market requirements across the globe. Closer cooperation with European growers will allow us to further refine our offering for this critical geography.″

Headquartered in Germany, Elsoms’ international business focuses breeding and growing expertise from across the world on the European market. Elsoms is the UK’s leading independent seed specialist and plant breeder; Crites is a leading US pea breeder with more than 90 years of experience; and Crookhams has an exemplary sweetcorn portfolio incorporating varieties from the Australian breeder, Snowy River (Victoria, Australia). A shared working ethos unites the partners who are all enthusiastic about the new venture.

″It’s great to have Crites on board,″ said Mr Martin Reisige, Managing Director, Elsoms’ international business. ″Vining peas are an important crop for Europe, so being able to offer the Crites portfolio along with their renowned expertise is a major plus. The Elsoms’ international sales and technical teams focus exclusively on sweetcorn and vining peas and are committed to matching their levels of services with the great performance that our portfolio varieties deliver.″