Schedule for the distribution of seedlings
With regard to “Sicilian Rouge High GABA”, the world’s first gene-edited tomato with high accumulation of GABA, more than 5,000 people applied for free seedlings for home gardens since the end of December, and we will start sending seedlings sequentially from the west from the beginning of May. We will also provide cultivation guidance via LINE app. Through this interactive communication, we plan to resolve consumers’ doubts about gene edited crops and by publicizing this process, we will also contribute to improving social acceptance of genome editing technology.
Sales Plan for 2021
At the same time as the seedlings are distributed, Pioneer EcoScience and Sanatech Seed will begin preparations for commercial sale of Sicilian Rouge High GABA starting in 2021 winter, taking into account the feedback from the home gardeners. We will start with only online sales in order to ensure transparency to society.
As for seedlings, we would only sell them for home gardens. As seedlings for farmers, All production would be contracted farming and we will sell processed tomatoes, purees. As many people in Japan could be suffering from high blood pressure and sleep problems, we concluded that processed foods would be the best way to start, because fruits supply would be unstable for consumers to have easy access to at any time.
We will also provide data-driven production support to the contract farmers. From seed production and sales to tomato production itself, we will ensure traceability and quality, fulfilling our mission to “create new value for consumers and contribute to agricultural producers”.
