b'IS COVID-19 A BLESSING IN DISGUISE?THE WORLD ISchanging rapidly. With his Americapropagated crops appeared when the whole business First Trump paved the way to question free trade inoperation of the company risked being halted by lock-the country that has more or less invented the con- down situations in a single country, such as Uganda cept. NAFTA, TTP and TTIP were demolished or put(Chrysanthemum cuttings) or India (Gerbera tissue cul-on ice, WTO got increasingly criticized by the Unitedture). Some flower breeders had already experienced States. Across the Atlantic, Boris Johnson followedsuch dependency during the Eyjafjallajkull eruption in suit, as the EU Commission wants to be less depend- 2010 and made a strategic move by starting a second ent on imports, illustrated by its plant protein plan,production site closer to Europe next to their Chinese NIELS LOUWAARSand some other leaders inside and neighbouring thelaboratory. The additional cost paid off during COVID-is the managingEU increasingly use nationalistic language which easily19 when they were able to shift between the two sites director at Plantum.translate in trade relations.keeping their operations at full speed. This article does notAnd while this was looming, COVID-19 suddenlyOur globally operating sector will be seriously necessarily reflect thecaused havoc in both human health and the economy.affected by the changing views on free trade, and I am views of all PlantumOne of the first responses to the closing of borders topretty sure this is not just a temporary hiccup caused members. curb the spread of the virus was buy local to supportby one politician at Pennsylvania Avenue. We were producers who could not export. This was very pas- already experiencing a trend of increasing complexities sionate in France with its strong dual food system within international trade at the level of phytosanitary rules massive supermarkets next to very popular farmersand requirements. These are partly due to scientific markets responding to the culture of terroir. But also,insights and often also a result of economic intent. in other countries, consumers responded. The flowerSimilar to the EUs attempt to be more self-sufficient sales in the Netherlands got a boost following the 8in proteins, countries that now look more explicitly at oclock news showing tons of beautiful flowers beingdependencies due to COVID-19 may also look at the destroyed because the flower market in Germanybasic requirement for every countrys supply of food collapsed, just like air connections to further awayand other plant productsseeds. The more important markets. the cropthe more closely its seeds will be scruti-Will this affect the seed business in the longer run?nised. But also, less vital crops, like vegetables, may not The seed sector is necessarily international, so it isescape attention. inevitably affected by trade relations and obstacles.These trends are closely analyzed in the board Breeding depends on a critical mass of knowledgearooms of internationally oriented seed companies. combination of molecular biology, genetics, cell andSome will be looking at strategic decisions that will plant physiology, pathology, agronomy and increas- significantly change the current organization. What are ingly big data and artificial intelligence. So, we have tothe costs of further decentralising major operationsmove research materials across borders.for a centralised management of breeding, production, Then, seed production is done in locations thatquality management, and marketing, and which risks are best suited from a combination of environmental,can be minimised by doing that?business, and regulatory environments which are notFor others, COVID-19 may have been a wakeup call necessarily the same as the markets for which they arethat the world is changing. Just like breeding goals produced. Next is quality management and storage,that change all the time with a changing climate, mar-where there is also a benefit of scale, especially forkets and agricultural policies (such as the Farm2Fork high value smaller seeds, which requires moving seedsStrategy), also these major global trends require fore-across borders. sight. COVID-19 did demonstrate some of the within- For seed strategists, COVID-19 may turn out to be a company dependencies. An example in vegetativelyblessing in disguise.SWDECEMBER 2020SEEDWORLD.COM /107'