June 21, 2024
Nutreco celebrates grand opening of its Garden of the Future
Nutreco celebrated the opening of its Garden of the Future, the new hub for its phytotechnology programme.
Located in Thurgau, Switzerland, the groundbreaking facility gathers all Nutreco's phytotechnology activities, from discovery and experimental cultivation to plant development and production, under one roof.
The two-day grand opening event showcased the work being done at the Garden of the Future for customers and journalists through garden tours, presentations and workshops by members of the company's Exploration team.
Nutreco's new CEO David Blakemore offered opening and closing remarks and its Chief Science Officer David Bravo was the keynote speaker on both days.
The Garden of the Future facility includes access to a 500 sqm experimental greenhouse for plant breeding and propagation, a 5,000 sqm vegetative mass propagation greenhouse, around 30 hectares of cultivation space and a "Future Garden" to display the facility's novel plants.
Nutreco's Garden of the Future is led by its director Dr Bernd Buter, who is also director of the company's phytotechnology programme. Dr Karin Berger, phytotechnology discovery director, serves as ethnobotanist, responsible for screening the plants and confirming their efficacy.
The facility is in an area known as the Phyto Valley, which contains a network of phyto-pharmaceutical companies, startups and laboratories. It is focused on creating phytotechnology solutions, called "Phyto-complexes" – plants or plant metabolites, that when added to feed, have physiological impacts that consistently support performance, health and welfare of aquatic species, farm and companion animals.
Phyto-complexes are developed in direct response to existing market issues, identified in close collaboration with our global Trouw Nutrition and Skretting customer-facing teams. Many of Nutreco's Phyto-complexes come from plants that haven't been cultivated before, which requires the team at the Garden of the Future to have a high level of plant production expertise, to create vertically integrated plant supply chains for these new plants.
- Nutreco
