Let’s start with something obvious: Without customers, a business can’t exist. So when most companies talk about how much they value their customers, it’s easy to understand why. The relationship between businesses and their customers is what commerce and livelihoods are built on. It’s a relationship no company can afford to take for granted, and something even the most successful businesses consider themselves fortunate to have earned. That’s certainly true for Seminis® Seed, but we have another reason to consider ourselves fortunate — our customers do more than help us sustain our business and carry out our mission, they help make our products better.

Seminis utilizes some of the world’s most advanced research and development resources, including a network of more than 50 breeding and testing stations, a global germplasm library, molecular markers and proprietary seed-chipping technology. These research and development capabilities help us discover the best genetics, but the foundation for all of it is actually something that comes from outside of the Seminis labs: our customers’ field intelligence.

When it comes to the challenges growers are facing in the field, no one knows better than the people on the front lines. To improve performance, you first have to understand what’s hindering it. That’s the vital link our customers provide with their feedback, and it helps us better direct our research and development efforts — allowing us to create strong, new products that are well-adapted to field conditions.

Our customers’ feedback is what helps us develop new opportunities in the field, but it’s their passion and expertise that helps ensure our products succeed once they reach the field. Seminis has many long-lasting business relationships with our customers, some of which have even developed into friendships. Those established relationships, and a strong belief in Seminis seeds, have enabled our customers to develop an incredible level of expertise — expertise they use to recommend the right products for growers. This provides tremendous value to growers and helps ensure their success. We’ve come to view it as a critical part of the Seminis experience.

Our customers do so much more than allow us to be in business. They help us develop products that are targeted to challenges they see in the field, and they provide the expertise to help ensure the product that is best adapted for those conditions is chosen for planting. All of this means a better product, a better on-farm experience, and we hope, more customers like the ones we already have.