Enza Zaden partners with Pairwise in the vegetable industry.

Dutch company Enza Zaden has signed a strategic agreement with US company Pairwise for the use of the Fulcrum platform. The technology will enable advancements in gene editing of crops, focusing on research and development of more efficient and sustainable varieties.

The partnership should benefit regions such as South America, where the demand for climate-resilient solutions and greater production efficiency is growing rapidly. In Brazil and Chile, for example, the use of the technology could generate cultivars better adapted to climatic variations and local pests, with less resource consumption.

According to Enza Zaden, the collaboration with Pairwise represents a significant advancement in the company's research capabilities, without altering, for now, its current commercial lines. The gene editing used in the platform allows scientists to accelerate the breeding process without replacing traditional methods.

“We received the news with great enthusiasm in South America. The collaboration does not have an immediate impact on commercial offerings, but it represents a significant leap in research capacity, which increases the productivity and profitability of our producers in a responsible manner,” says Jean François Hardouin, Enza Zaden's commercial manager for South America.

The two companies reported that the use of the Fulcrum platform will be restricted to research on vegetables. There are no plans to commercially launch products derived from the technology at this time.