Sakata’s President visits Almería and Murcia Spanish Research Stations

During his tour in Europe, Hiroshi Sakata, President of the Corporation, visited Sakata’s Seed Ibérica Research and Development stations in Almería and Murcia. Mr. Sakata was accompanied by Tom Nakai (Overseas Sales & Marketing Division Director), Dave Armstrong (Sakata America President), Basile de Bari (SVE Managing Director) and Javier Bernabéu (Sakata Seed Ibérica Manager).

During the visit, the committee had a tour through the greenhouses, the trials and the facilities, where they had opportunity to meet closely many members of the Sakata Spain team. The visitors followed with great interest the explanations given by the R&D team about the breeding programs under development, the new varieties coming to the market and the company’s medium and long-term projects in Spain and Portugal.

Next stop was Barcelona, where the ISF World Seed Congress took place for the first time in two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic. With the top company managers, Mr. Sakata attended the event. With ‘Sowing a vibrant future’ as the congress tagline, more than 1.500 assistants and the main seeds industry players, went through key subjects as the opportunities and challenges in the seeds supply or the need of counting with efficient aligned international politics for the future.

The Congress was closed with the “Thematic Day”, focused on the role of seed industry in the food chain, it’s contributions, challenges, threats and expectations. By the same time, emphasis was placed in the improvement that the sector must do regarding communication to give visibility to all the contributions breeding does for society. To end the event, the famous chefs with two Michelin stars, the Torres brothers, featured a ‘showcooking’ with such versatile products as Bimi® or squash.