Israeli company Danziger is one of the top breeding companies in the floricultural industry. Chairman of the Board of Directors of Danziger Group, Mr Micha Danziger, is one of the keynote speakers at the International Floriculture Forum that will take place in Vijfhuizen on the 6th of November, a day before IFTF opens its doors to the public. “It is important to keep your eyes open, to listen to other people and exchange ideas.”
The floricultural breeding sector is currently characterised by the consolidation of breeding companies. The total number of breeding companies is going down all the time. And the companies that are left, are getting bigger and bigger. Danziger, founded in 1953, is one of the leading floriculture companies in the world, an innovative and passionate company, involved in research, breeding, development, propagation, production, as well as sales and marketing of cut flowers, annuals and perennials. Danziger has more than 800 breeders’ rights registrations. More than 600 million cuttings of Danziger’s varieties are planted each year by more than 1,000 customers across more than 60 countries.
Family business
Mr Danziger is aware that the figures are impressive. He is the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Danziger Group. His experience with agriculture, floriculture and breeding industries exceeds 45 years. The consolidation in the floricultural breeding sector hasn’t escaped his attention either. “In my opinion, consolidation is a fact. Changes are happening in manufacturing and services sectors all over the world. We’re trying to learn from these sectors.”
Micha Danziger brings up the developments in the seed industry as an example for on-going consolidation, on the one hand, and he also refers to the recent developments of companies like Monsanto, Bayer and Syngenta. “We observe. It’s the name of the game. On the other hand, we realise that the smaller companies have an advantage, because they’re faster.”
Mr Danziger has noticed that large companies have been buying innovations, because they need to be innovative. As an example, he mentions the Israeli start-up companies in the cyber and car industry. They’re a big player nowadays, because the large players in the automation industry spent a lot of money on buying technologies from the Israeli start-up for self-driving cars.
‘We’re doing well’
The question is where Danziger – a noteworthy company – is positioned in the arena of floricultural breeding. In the picture painted by Micha Danziger, he puts his company in a favourable competitive position. “We’re doing well. We can compete with all leading companies. We employ a large number of scientists, our breeding activities involve many different crops and we’re constantly learning from each crop, more than 6o in number. Moreover, as a family business we maintain close relationships with our customers around the world. And let’s not forget about Danziger Innovations.”
This initiative which started as a cooperation between Danziger Innovations a spin-off of the Danziger “Dan” Flower Farm and the Yissum Research and Development Company of the Hebrew University started in 2008 and focuses on the development and application of new breeding techniques to improve crop traits and characteristics.
Danziger adds that, in addition to their own floricultural crop breeding activities, the Danziger’s are also shareholders in Equinom Ltd., an innovative Israel based breeding technology company. “We feel that we are very well equipped for the road ahead.” He explains how Danziger is trying to expand their portfolio and he highlighted the importance of collaborating with other companies and other links in the value chain.
“Changes are happening rapidly, and the changes are very big. If you want to play in the Premier League, you must collaborate and be flexible with regards to different business models. We feel that we’re on the right track and that we need to continue to grow and stay open to different kinds of collaborations.”
Homeland
Israel is Danziger’s homeland. The company has strong relationships with the Israeli academia and research institutes, but they don’t have too many customers left in their own country. It’s a niche market nowadays”, says Danziger.
They sell most of their cut-flower varieties to the large equatorial production countries. Mr. Danziger mentions Colombia, Ecuador, Kenya and Ethiopia. They also have some business in European countries.
He considers China to be an important upcoming distribution market, because the Chinese market is growing steadily and the consumers are willing to pay high prices for premium flowers. “That’s why we’re helping our customers to introduce high quality cut flowers to the Chinese market.” With regards to Danziger’s annuals and perennials, their distribution markets includes mainly Europe, the USA, Japan and China.
International Floriculture Forum
Mr Danziger is one of the five keynote speakers at the International Floriculture Forum. The Forum will incorporate an open discussion, during which Mr Danziger and Mr Hans van den Heuvel of Dümmen Orange will be talking about topics such as consolidation, new breeding techniques and GMO.
Mr Danziger will argue that collaboration is of outmost importance for the breeding technology sector, because changes are happening so fast. He will also draw attention to some of the latest highlights from Danziger’s breeding programme. A green Gypsophila and the new Scabiosa series, Focal Scoop®, for example. The chairman expects this new Scabiosa will end up in the worldwide flower top 10 within a short time.
Mr Danziger feels that the International Floriculture Forum, organised by Union Fleurs, is an important event. “It’s a great opportunity for international players to meet up. With all the current changes, everyone is very much focused on their own work. It’s important to keep your eyes open, and to listen to other people and exchange ideas.”
Registration for the Forum is still open and free of charge. But due to limited capacity and high-level of interest from the international flower industry, it will be open to qualified participants only and subject to admittance confirmation.
Register here: www.floriforum.com
