Partnerships
The co-operative spirit, a shared value
Co-operation means working together to achieve what we cannot do alone, exploring together the paths of the future, giving priority to agreements with companies from the world of agriculture or that share the same values. Limagrain's diversity of partnerships in scientific, industrial and commercial fields enriches its vision.
Partnerships with other co-operatives
The Limagrain Co-operative sometimes proposes seed production contracts with other partner co-operatives. This is the case with Arterris, Lur Berri, Euralis, la Cavac and also Top Semences and Terre Atlantique.
La Cavac, for example, a co-operative based in La Rochesur-Yon in Vendée (France), produces wheat, corn, rape and sunflower seeds for Limagrain.
Lur Berri, a co-operative based in the Basque country, produces corn seeds. Limagrain broadens the seed production partnership with French co-operatives to research and development agreements.
Research partnerships
Apart from its main strategic research partnerships, Limagrain has signed scientific agreements with other partners such as CIMMYT, an international research center for wheat and corn breeding, based in Mexico, and ICARDA, the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas, based in Syria.
In Australia, Limagrain and the CSIRO have signed research agreements on exchanging germplasm and technologies. They also work together on improving the quality of wheat varieties. They have created a joint venture, ARISTA, to work on high amylose wheat varieties.
In France, Limagrain joined the GIS (Scientific Interest Group) - called “Biotechnologies vertes” (Green biotechnology), as soon as it was formed in 2011. Céréales Vallée is also a member along with other competitiveness clusters such as Agrimip and Végépolys. This GIS is the follow-up to Génoplante 2010. The partnership involves all the public research institutes, INRA, CNRS, CIRAD, IRD and CEA, most private seed companies, in particular Limagrain, RAGT and Euralis, through Biogemma, along with Syngenta and Desprez, the French agricultural institutes Arvalis and Sofiprotéol, and French ag-industry represented by Roquette. The main ambition of the GIS “Biotechnologies vertes” (Green biotechnology) is to stimulate and steer research programs in the field of plant biotechnology, and to encourage participants to pool their resources and skills.
Another example: in order to facilitate the emergence of a true bio-economy based on knowledge of life sciences, the French government has decided to provide research with the means to make a technological leap forward in the key areas of agriculture, food and biomass. Two of the projects retained as part of this “Future Investments” project, Amaizing (€9 million over eight years) and BreedWheat (€9 million over nine years), aim to use very high throughput genotyping and phenotyping techniques to identify the potential of corn and wheat, two key crops. Limagrain is a partner in these projects that are being run by INRA. Here the objective is to promote more productive agriculture while limiting input to a minimum.
Partnerships extending to commercial development
In North America, Limagrain joined forces with KWS in 2000 to create AgReliant Genetics, a 50/50 joint venture. The company is No. 4 for corn seeds in this continent. AgReliant Genetics distributes corn and soybean seeds in the United States and Canada under the brand names AgriGold, Great Lakes, LG Seeds, Producers Hybrids, Wensman and Pride.
In Europe, in 2003, Limagrain welcomed the eleven co-operatives forming Verneuil Agro-Financement to set up Limagrain Verneuil Holding, renamed Limagrain Europe in 2009. It combines the different field seeds activities intended for all the continent of Europe.
In South America, in 2011, Limagrain signed a strategic alliance in corn, through its holding Vilmorin & Cie, with the Brazilian seeds company Sementes Guerra resulting in the joint venture Limagrain Guerra do Brasil. This agreement strengthens the genetic heritage of the two parties, meaning they can create new, more efficient
varieties for the benefit of farmers.
