Nutreco is proud to announce the grand opening of its Garden of the Future, the new hub for its phytotechnology program, located in Thurgau, Switzerland. This state-of-the-art facility consolidates Nutreco’s phytotechnology activities, including discovery, experimental cultivation, plant development, and production, under one roof.
The two-day event featured tours, presentations and workshops led by the company’s exploration team for customers and journalists. Nutreco’s new CEO, David Blakemore, gave opening and closing remarks, and Chief Science Officer, David Bravo, was the keynote speaker on both days.
The Garden of the Future boasts a 500 square meter experimental greenhouse for plant breeding and propagation, a 5,000 square meter vegetative mass propagation greenhouse, 30 hectares of cultivation space and a "Future Garden" to showcase novel plants.
The facility is directed by Dr. Bernd Büter, who also heads Nutreco’s Phytotechnology Program. Dr. Karin Berger, phytotechnology discovery director, serves as the ethnobotanist responsible for screening plants and confirming their efficacy.
Located in the Phyto Valley, a hub for phyto-pharmaceutical companies, startups, and laboratories, the Garden of the Future focuses on creating phytotechnology solutions known as “Phyto-complexes.” These complexes, derived from plants or plant metabolites, support the performance, health and welfare of aquatic species, farm,and companion animals. Many Phyto-complexes are developed from plants that have never been cultivated before, necessitating a high level of plant production expertise.
“Nutreco’s Garden of the Future will help us address many of the specific challenges our customers face and support them in improving performance, health, and welfare in unprecedented new ways. The work being done here is truly groundbreaking–Nutreco’s Phyto-complexes are unmatched in quality and consistency and most use plants that have never before been cultivated for animal nutrition. We believe these products will benefit producers around the world and play a very important role in helping us achieve our purpose of Feeding the Future,” said Blakemore.
Bravo added, “The team at Nutreco’s Garden of the Future has already taken great strides in filling our innovation portfolio with new solutions directly addressing our customers’ challenges, with four Phyto-complex products already launched and 17 in the pipeline. So far, we have collected around 450 unique plant material samples and are performing field trials and production in seven countries. We’re excited to present this new facility, and the pioneering work of our Exploration team, to our colleagues, journalists, and customers this week.”
