After more than three decades of successful collaboration, BASF’s vegetable seeds business has completed the acquisition of privately-owned French company ASL, one of the world’s leading innovative melon breeding companies.
The transaction includes all aspects of ASL’s current business, as it covers seed production, intellectual property rights, germplasm, research and development facilities and staff, according to a release.
This acquisition will allow BASF to continue to develop “new innovative concepts of healthy and tasty melons” that contribute to consumer loyalty to the company’s partners throughout the value chain, shared the release.
“The acquisition of ASL strengthens our market position and creates new opportunities for growth of our hybrid melon seed portfolio marketed under the Nunhems brand,” said Maximilian Becker, senior vice president of BASF’s vegetable seeds business. “With the expertise and knowledge of the colleagues joining, we will be able to offer a broader and more innovative melon pipeline to our value chain partners and consumers.”
ASL specializes in orange flesh type melons. This includes the cantaloup and charentais types that cover major markets across the globe, with successful varieties such as Magenta, Red Falcon, Torum, Bernini and the Golden Cantaloup. Seed production and breeding facilities located near Avignon — the location in which ASL is based — will be integrated into BASF’s current worldwide network, which is composed of 23 breeding stations for vegetable seeds. This integration will create the first breeding and screening R&D location in France.
Financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed.
