24 I SEED WORLD EUROPE I SEEDWORLD.COM/EUROPE | OCTOBER 2026 ple. “We are planning to launch hybrid wheat in 2027. We have a proprietary hybridization system in wheat,” Riffat says. “That’s an expansion of our genetic platform to a crop where we have not been present.” The third route is different again: use crops Vylor already understands to address emerging markets and production sys tems. For example, Vylor is working on a short-cycle sunflower that could fit between established crops such as wheat and barley, producing an additional harvest without displacing the primary rotation. The sunflower could supply biofuel production, with the meal co-product contributing protein for animal feed. The regulatory environment will inevitably influence how quickly some of those technologies reach the market. Teresa Babuscio, Vylor’s Head of Government and Industry Affairs for EMEA and APAC, sees Europe at a different point than it was even a few years ago. “Europe has learned a lesson, and it does not want to miss another chance,” she says, pointing to geopolitical pressure, climate change and the opportunities European agriculture missed around earlier biotechnology. She sees the EU’s new NGT framework as evidence of a more pragmatic approach, with the bigger test now being how that framework is implemented in practice. OPEN FOR BUSINESS BEYOND ITS OWN BRANDS Vylor’s innovation strategy is only part of the story. The other key for Europe’s seed sector is where genetics and technology will be available outside Vylor’s own commercial brands. Vylor is “open for business” with the wider seed sector, Riffat says. That includes licensing genetics and technology, working with seed companies that have stronger access to particular crops or markets, and looking for partners that can take Vylor innovation further than Vylor’s own commercial organisation could alone. Boucher says Vylor is consolidating teams around licensing and building a dedicated identity for that part of the business: Vylor One. The model he describes goes beyond supplying a hybrid or variety. Under the model, Vylor will provide genetics, pipeline, product knowledge and support, while the partner will leverage those assets to build its own portfolio under its own brand and according to its own market strategy. “We would provide the background support in order for all partners to build their own approach, touching their own cus tomers,” Boucher says. He describes licensing as “a very strong component” of Vylor’s strategy going forward. Boucher is explicit that Vylor does not want a licensing relationship built around dependency. Partners, he says, should retain control over their market access, grower relationships, brands and agronomic expertise. Boucher puts it simply: “Vylor won’t be visible for the farmers, and probably that’s the strength there.” A DIFFERENT TEST OF THE NEW COMPANY Vylor’s scale, brands and breeding programs are already estab lished. The questions now are more behavioural. Does Vylor become easier for another seed company to access? Does Vylor One materially expand the licensing pipe line? Does its genetics platform move successfully into additional crops and markets? Do gene-editing tools translate into commer cially relevant products in Europe? Can projects such as interme diate sunflower connect breeding innovation to emerging value chains? And does concentrating the organization entirely around seed and genetics make it faster? Boucher believes it should. He describes a more stream lined organization where expertise from the top to the bottom is focused on the seed business. “Agility, speed for supporting our partners. That is the key message,” he says. Vylor already has the genetics, people, brands and infra structure to be consequential. What the European seed sector can begin judging now is whether independence changes how those assets reach the market, and how many other seed com panies can build with them.
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