KNOW-HOW COMBINED WITH AN EXPERIENCE MORE THAN A CENTENARY

Created in 1902 by the French Brewers and Maltsters, the primary purpose of the SECOBRA association was to develop and improve the supply of quality-grade barley to the industry. Today, SECOBRA Recherches includes industrial maltsters, brewers, seed companies and collecting bodies among its main shareholders. It asserts itself as an acquisition firm within the French, European and worldwide cereal-growing industry. As a barley specialist in Europe, SECOBRA Recherches fulfills four essential functions aiming to improve the quality of barley production: varietal selection, seed production, varietal identification and marketing. SECOBRA Recherches has several selection centers at its disposal, placed at the heart of the main European cereal-growing areas and the major barley production areas throughout the world (Argentina, Australia, Russia, to name a few). Fifteen years ago, a significant wheat selection program was set up with several success stories to its credit, including PALEDOR, ROSARIO, GARCIA, and more recently, DESCARTES, NEMO and CAMPESINO. For more than 100 years, SECOBRA Recherches has stayed true to three objectives which has enabled it to experience substantial growth:

• develop varietal creation by looking for a balance between agronomical and technological objectives in order to satisfy both farmers and manufacturers
• have expert knowledge of varietal identification to monitor and track the varietal purity of malting barley and the malt supply
• produce very high-purity seeds of its varieties.

This work as well as its results were made possible by the continuous involvement of the industrial sector, which has regularly expressed interest in its raw material. This exemplary collaboration between a selection company and its “downstream” industry is simply unique in Europe!