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Breed4Food initiative reinforces the Netherlands' position as an innovative country in animal breeding and genomics
Four Netherlands-based international companies - CRV (cattle), Hendrix Genetics (poultry and pigs), TOPIGS (pigs) and Cobb Europe (poultry) and Wageningen University & Research have committed themselves to reinforcing the position of the Netherlands as an innovative livestock breeding country through the Breed4Food initiative.
To this end, they signed a declaration of intent on 3 September 2012 in Wageningen. The four companies, based in the Netherlands, are all among the world leaders in their areas of breeding.
Wageningen University & Research centre is a globally-renowned research and education institution. The initiative will be supported financially through the Dutch Topsector Policy. The ambition is to form a top-ranking institute: Breed4Food. This institute must ensure the reinforcement of the knowledge and growth ambitions in the fields of:
- Using DNA information
- Incorporating new characteristics
- Adding value to the production chain
Innovations in these fields are crucial in order to be able to satisfy the globally increasing demand for high-quality animal proteins. Sophisticated breeding programmes need to be implemented in order to increase the efficiency of the food chain, to reduce the ecological footprint, to respond to changing consumer wishes and to contribute to the improved welfare of humans and animals.
'The combination of companies and their knowledge is essential to be able to achieve the ambitions of the Dutch agrifood sector,' explains Ate Lindeboom, chairman of Breed4Food. 'This way, we can make a joint contribution to the creation of added value in the production of milk, meat, and eggs.'
Partners
CRV is an international enterprise in the field of cattle improvement. The shareholders are the Dutch Co-operative CR Delta and the Flemish Co-operative VRV. CRV has operations in The Netherlands, Belgium, Brazil, New Zealand, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Germany and Spain. In addition to these countries, the products and services of CRV are marketed in approximately 50 countries worldwide.
Hendrix Genetics is a leading multispecies breeding company with 5 primary activities: layer breeding (Institut de Sélection Animale-ISA,), pig breeding (HYPOR), turkey breeding (HYBRID), aquaculture breeding (LANDCATCH) and poultry distribution (GRELIER, GRELAVI, GRELEGER, STVO ,ALS, SFPA, INTEGRA, JOICE & HILL). The company is dedicated to generating solutions for the animal protein sector that solve the challenges of today and those we cannot ignore for tomorrow.
TOPIGS stands for progress in pigs. This means research, innovation and genetic improvement are the cornerstones of our company. By continuously improving our products, we enable our clients to achieve maximum results.
Cobb Europe - Suppliers of top quality broiler breeding stock in Europe, the Middle East and Africa - are part of the global Cobb network, serving our customers through the use of innovative research and technology to make protein healthy, sustainable and affordable for everyone.
Wageningen UR - The mission of Wageningen University & Research centre is ‘To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life’. Within Wageningen UR, nine research institutes – both specialised and applied – have joined forces with Wageningen University and Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences to help answer the most important questions in the domain of healthy food and living environment.