As one of the driving forces in the North American brassica market, Vilmorin-Mikado, is proud to offer an extensive line of brassicas through its own commercial vegetable seed brand “Vilmorin” as well as the brand “Harris Moran” through one of its sister companies, HM. Clause.
Longstanding in France, Vilmorin-Mikado employs nearly three centuries of experience and research in vegetable seed production. In broccoli, alone, the company boasts more than 120 years’ expertise and 20 varieties available in the Vilmorin catalog.
Today, Vilmorin-Mikado sister company, HM.Clause offers a diverse brassica portfolio and has been a market leader in cauliflower for well over a decade. The Harris Moran brand currently offers industry-leading varieties such as ABSOLUTE and APEX. With over 44,000 acres in Salinas and Yuma, the Vilmorin-Mikado and HM.Clause teams are diligent in serving the robust market within these strategic areas.
Salinas, CA based Product Development Manager, Swasti Reddy offers that both cauliflower and broccoli have a strong foothold in California.
“While variety’s such as ABSOLUTE and APEX continue to dominate the cauliflower market, its broccoli line is quickly becoming a contender in the field,” Reddy shares. “In California, broccoli variety CONSTELLATION is our leading multi-use main season variety which excels as a fresh crown cut, and stands out for its accessible head placement, uniformity, and adaptability. Two newer varieties were also just launched: SECRETARIAT: a spring and fall variety and SEABISCUIT: a tail-end, main season variety with exceptional uniformity and field holding capabilities. All three are stand-out varieties quickly becoming customer favorites.”
Currently, Vilmorin-Mikado is working in the Desert-Southwest region to trial the broccoli variety SAGAN and the cauliflower variety UNO BLANCO, and they are hopeful for successful launch into the pipeline.
Vilmorin-Mikado has also recently launched two cauliflower varieties out of their own breeding program: BORIS, a front-end season cauliflower for the Central Coast and GENESIS, a main season cauliflower with an exceptional market-leading inner wrap.
To lead these market segments, Vilmorin-Mikado has invested in the research and development tools its customers demand by dedicating 16% of revenue to research. The company currently has more than 50 different functional locations worldwide, many where breeding and development teams are tasked with crossing and selecting genetics to create adaptable yet niche varieties that service our global market reach: from producers to consumers. Vilmorin-Mikado continues to focus on innovative, sustainable, and resistant products.
“With our local sales and product development team, which are located in Salinas, CA and Yuma, AZ, we are dedicated to promoting commercial lines as well as trialing new products coming from the research pipeline,” Swasti says. “Having a direct sales model, we have a direct pulse on growers which helps our team’s collective efforts to identify superior quality based on industry demand.”
