Largest Single-Year New Variety Deployment In Sevita History

Plus a new online plot tool that lets growers compare variety performance using their own criteria

Written by Lilian Schaer for Sevita International

Sevita International, a Canadian-owned and operated soybean company, has introduced thirteen new soybean varieties across Canada for the 2022 growing season and will have another ten new varieties available in 2023. They have also launched a new online plot comparison tool that lets growers compare variety performance in on-farm plots across Canada.

The 2022 roll-out of new varieties is the largest single-year deployment in Sevita’s more than 25-year history. As an independent soybean company, Sevita selects varieties from its own proprietary breeding program, Sevita Genetics, and partners with other multinationals and public breeding organizations to deliver one of the strongest commercial soybean seed portfolios in Canada. These new varieties complement Sevita’s existing soybean line-up as well as fill geographical gaps or meet special growing condition requirements, such as soybean cyst resistance.

“Our specialty is Canadian soybean genetics for Canadian farmers, so we value the feedback of our growers. Sevita makes sure we consider farmer needs and their growing conditions carefully when making breeding decisions and bringing new varieties to market,” says John Van Herk, Product Development and Agronomy Manager at Sevita. “And through our export team, we work very closely with our buyers and end-use manufacturers around the world to develop new varieties with unique characteristics that will meet their specific needs.”

Sevita’s breeding activities are located near its Eastern Ontario headquarters in Inkerman, south of Ottawa. Other pre-commercial research trial sites across Eastern Canada include a wider selection of soil types and growing conditions. On-site evaluation trials are also completed at various locations in Western Canada.

“Unlike many multi-national seed companies, our varieties are bred and tested right where they will be grown, so growers can have confidence in how they will perform in their fields,” adds Van Herk.

The seven new food-grade varieties added for this year were developed by Sevita Genetics. Sevita food-grade beans are exported to high-value markets around the world to end up in products like tofu, soy beverage, miso, soy sauce, and a fermented soybean dish called natto.

Sevita contracts its food-grade soybean production directly with farmers across Canada. This means farmers have a guaranteed market and a premium price for 100% of their crop, regardless of total yield, before it is even planted. Sevita’s international export customers know they are going to get soybeans that meet their specific criteria like taste, colour, texture, size, sugar, protein content, and more.

“Sevita’s proprietary food-grade soybeans have a reputation for excellence with some of the world’s largest and most progressive soy food manufacturers – and we have long-standing relationships with many of these companies,” says Matt Renkema, Grain Business Manager at Sevita.

The company has also added six new traited varieties for the 2022 growing season in both Eastern and Western Canada. The value-added traits include Roundup Ready 2 Xtend® and Enlist E3™ to give growers more flexibility with planting decisions and complement their food-grade bean production.

Sevita’s new online plot comparison tool will further help growers with their seed-buying decisions. Featuring five years’ worth of agronomic data from on-farm plots, the web-based tool lets Canadian growers see how different varieties perform in their geographic areas, relative to other products on the market. They can select plots by location on a map or by variety to compare varieties head-to-head by both yield and revenue potential.

“Visiting plots during growing season is not always possible and most growers make purchasing decisions in the winter, so this tool will help put more information right at growers’ fingertips when they need it most,” Van Herk says. “It will be especially useful to help growers take a look at the new varieties launched this year and see how they might perform in their areas.”