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Sundre barley contract to be signed with German company
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Sundre barley contract to be signed with German company
A unique agreement between AHT Systems Canada and Alberta-based Mastin Seeds may see Sundre barley growing in the Samara Oblast region of Russia, as soon as 2012. The arrangement follows the variety's excellent performance across a wide range of conditions in the Russian district.
October 15, 2008 By Mastin Seeds/AHT Systems
October 14, 2008
Recently, AHT Systems Canada’s president Mr G.W. van Wissen and managing director Steve Rairdan entered into a strategic alliance with Samara Solana to produce and market seed in Russia. In the next few years AHT’s focus will be selecting new Canadian grain varieties for registration in Russia. The newest variety that has caught their interest is Sundre barley.
Sundre has all the characteristics to be successful in Russia. The most promising attribute is its flexibility to be grown in many different conditions. This flexibility will make Sundre barley a very popular variety in Russia. Company executives are excited to have the opportunity to cooperate with Mastin Seeds. This fall, AHT will send Sundre barley to Russia and apply for its registration.
The registration process will take three years and if all goes well Sundre should receive registration in the Russian State Seed Registry in 2012. AHT Systems Canada was established in 1998 by its parent company AHT Systems GmbH (Germany). AHT Systems was one of the first foreign companies to be invited to Russia following ‘Perestroika’ in 1993 to provide expertise in the agriculture sector. The first project was in Samara Oblast, a small federal subject of Russia, to introduce seed potato production using new technologies.
The intent was to provide Russian farms with quality seed which would be the base for improving yields. One of the keys to its success was the introduction of foreign seed material starting with importing potato seed stock from Germany, and in later years with the cooperation of AHT (Systems) Canada cereal grain seed from Canada. In 1997, following the success of the seed potato project, the Samara Government invited AHT Systems to participate in the Samara Grain Project to help introduce a moisture conservation system ( ZERO TILL) on an area of 250,000 ha. The goal was to supply several farms with new seed, fertilizers and chemicals, modern farm equipment, and to develop the moisture conservation system that would work in Russian conditions.
