In the early 21st century, Rijk Zwaan was looking for a production location close to the equator so that seeds could be produced all year round. Tanzania emerged as an excellent location. Almost on the equator, so twelve hours of light per day, a temperate climate in the fertile highlands, easily accessible and in the same time zone as the Netherlands. ‘Always springtime and everything grows here,’ as Business Development Manager Africa Harald Peeters puts it. In 2002, we launched Rijk Zwaan Q-Sem, our African seed production company.

Obsolete varieties

‘What we soon learned: Tanzanian growers only had varieties that were over twenty or thirty years old. We decided to come up with something seriously better and to start breeding for the local African market,’ says Kees Reinink, Managing Director of Rijk Zwaan.

‘To guarantee sufficient input for this market with low seed prices, we allocated a separate budget and realised that it would take longer than usual to earn back that money. The aim was to develop a basic range for tropical Africa.’

Taking turns choosing

At the start, Rijk Zwaan worked together with East-West Seed, for which Bianca van Haperen – now Breeder Aubrika at Rijk Zwaan in the Netherlands – was active in Africa at the time. After her market survey, it was decided to breed open-field tomatoes, African eggplant and habanero peppers. Rijk Zwaan Afrisem started with those crops in 2008. Kale was added later

Rijk Zwaan set up the breeding company near Rijk Zwaan Q-Sem in Arusha, Tanzania. Kees: ‘We shared the knowledge and costs with East-West Seed and gave them half of the varieties developed by Afrisem. To make sure that we each had a fair share, we took turns choosing a variety.’

Kees calls it the best breeding collaboration with a competitor ever. Yet it came to an end in 2015. Kees: ‘It’s always difficult to share breeding material with a competitor.’

‘Always springtime and everything grows here.’

Harald Peeters

Business Development Manager Africa

Africa in the picture

After more than fifteen years, Rijk Zwaan now has an excellent catalogue for Africa. With not just varieties of crops for the fertile highlands in Tanzania and other East African countries. But also varieties for the humid tropical lowlands and the northern desert climate of West Africa. From the breeding programme in Tanzania, three commercial open-field tomato varieties, three varieties of hot peppers and four varieties of African eggplant are now available, plus one for kale since 2024

Besides breeding, Rijk Zwaan Afrisem is focusing more and more on screening varieties from Rijk Zwaan’s other breeding programmes to determine their suitability for African climates and markets. To do this, it not only uses the station in Tanzania but also trial fields in Kenya, Ethiopia and the West African countries of Senegal and Benin. In this way, Rijk Zwaan Afrisem is using cabbage, carrot, melon and watermelon varieties from existing breeding programmes. And sweet pointed pepper, lettuce and snack cucumbers are now also growing on African soil. The tomato programme is now linked to that of Rijk Zwaan Brazil, where a breeding programme for open-field tomatoes is also under way.

The first varieties of habanero pepper are now even in use outside Africa. Genetic material from the African eggplant programme is being used in eggplant breeding by colleagues outside Africa.

Harald: ‘Over those fifteen years or more, we have generated an awareness of Africa’s importance right across Rijk Zwaan. Breeders outside this continent are now also asking themselves: what does Africa need?

Rijk Zwaan has trained 48,000 growers in Tanzania so that they get more out of their crops

Rijk Zwaan is developing varieties for growers who want to produce professionally