Svalöf in Sweden
“Svalöf” has a long and successful history in plant breeding ever since the rediscovery of Mendel´s laws in the year 1900. Swedish Plant Breeders like Hjalmar Nilsson and Herman Nilsson-Ehle are well known for their successful breeding work in the Swedish Seed Association based in Svalöv, a small town in southern Sweden.
From the outset, they combined theory and practice, maintaining close links with farmers, which has been a key to Svalöf´s success. The Swedish seed system was particularly effective in integrating private initiative and government support in a productive way.
However, with the trend towards privatization, in 1980, the government tansferred its interest in Svalöf fully to the private sector and the farmers' cooperatives (the Swedish Farmers' Supply and Crop Association). As a result, plant breeding activities were combined with commercial seed production, processing and marketing were incorporated into a new shareholding company known as Svalöf AB. With continuing pressures in the enlarged European market, and globally, Svalöf AB amalgamated with is main competitor W Weibull AB under the new company name Svalöf Weibull AB. Thus in 1993 this became the main force in Swedish plant breeding and seed production. It is clear that this history of seed company development is relevant to many other countries in which government support for public research continues to decline, while the demands for food production increase.
Svalöf in the World
The Consultancy Department of Svalöf Weibull, became active in international agriculture during the 1970´s, when it was engaged by FAO to undertake the in long term training of plant breeders in Sweden and abroad.
The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) also recognised the value of this experience in plant breeding for the developing world. They assigned Svalöf to plan and implement two major seed industry development projects in Zambia and Mozambique during the period 1980-2000. Another challenging task allocated to Svalöf was to strengthen the seed supply system in Amhara State, Ethiopia, through a two year project from 1997-99.
In the year 2000, Svalöf was awarded a contract by the EU to implement a Seed Industry Development Project in Kyrgyzstan. The success achieved during the first three years encouraged Sida to take over the financial responsibility for this project when EU funding ended and Svalöf Consulting continues to provide technical assistance to develop the Kyrgyz seed industry. In parallel, a similar project was initiated in neighbouring Tajikistan in 2004, again with the aim of building an integrated seed system, using the Kyrgyzstan experience as model.
Over a period of almost 40 years, Svalöf's long professional experience at home and abroad has contributed to the building of sustainable seed industries in emerging economies, based on commercial opportunities and strong private sector participation.
