Bayer CropScience opens canola research facility in Canada

Date:07-23-2009

Bayer CropScience has today inaugurated a new centre of innovation northeast of Saskatoon/Canada, dedicated to the research, development and breeding of canola/oilseed. The complex is one of the few such state-of-the art research facilities worldwide. This new addition to their existing 225 hectare breeding station covers almost 5000 square meters of laboratories and phytotron rooms, including around 750 square meters of air-purity controlled greenhouse space.

The facility will employ approximately 40 people from plant breeders to molecular scientists and plant pathologists. It brings the Bayer CropScience canola breeding program together in one facility for the first time. Canola is a form of rapeseed primarily grown in North America and Australia. Through the additional investment of close to EUR 10 Million Bayer CropScience aims at driving the continual advancement of its market leading InVigor hybrid canola.

"This new centre is a perfect demonstration of our global commitment to innovation. Canada is one of the most important countries for Bayer CropScience, and Canola has been a major contributor to this success: We have achieved annual growth-rates of more than 20 percent in the past years with our InVigor hybrid canola”, said Professor Friedrich Berschauer, Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer CropScience, at the inauguration ceremony.

"The centre hosts some of the best scientists and the most modern molecular breeding techniques in the world. The greenhouse facilities allow an exponential leap in our plant breeding efficiency because we can now grow and research up to four generations of canola plants in a single year under very effective conditions of isolation to bring innovation to the market faster,” added Garth Hodges, global General Manager of Canola at Bayer CropScience’s Canadian Headquarter in Calgary, Alberta.