The Access to Seeds Index is now part of the World Benchmarking Alliance. All indexes up to 2020 can be found here. New indexes and methodologies are published on the website of the WBA.
Stay here worldbenchmarkingalliance.orgNongwoo Bio Company Ltd (Nongwoo Bio) is a Korean vegetable seed company that was established in 1967 as Nongwoo Seed. It opened a breeding station in 1981 and changed its name to Nongwoo Bio in 2000. Two years later, the company went public and is now one of the largest Korean vegetable seed companies. The Korean National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF) has a 52.8% majority stake in the company. As well as being a leading enterprise in South and Southeast Asia, Nongwoo Bio has a global presence in 70 countries, including subsidiaries in the United States, China, India, Indonesia, Myanmar and Turkey. Smallholder farmers are considered the company’s main clientele in some markets in the region.
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Access to Seeds Index
South and Southeast Asia
Nongwoo Bio ranks 23rd in the South and Southeast Asia Index. The company performs best in Research & Development, which reflects its focus on vegetable breeding. Although it reports that smallholder farmers are an important clientele in some markets in which it operates, the company reveals no commitments on access to seeds. In Governance & Strategy, oversight is lacking, including broader commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals or sustainable development in general. Similarly, the company performs weakly in Genetic Resources and Capacity Building relative to its peers, and can significantly improve reporting on its activities in Seed Production and Marketing & Sales.
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| Sales | Seed type | Source | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bgd | khm | ind | idn | mmr | npl | pak | PHL | lka | tha | vnm | Hybrid | OPV | GM | Own breeding program |
Public research institute |
Licensed from other company |
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| Vegetables | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cabbage | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Carrot | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cauliflower | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cucumber | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Eggplant | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gourd | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lettuce | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Melon | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Okra | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Onion | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pepper (hot) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pepper (sweet) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pumpkin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Squash | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tomato | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Watermelon | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
No leading practices were identified.
Nongwoo Bio is encouraged to disclose the full scope of its access to seeds-related activities in South and Southeast Asia.
Since the company has seed production activities in three countries in the region, it is encouraged to provide more information on the involvement of smallholder farmers in these activities and also to clarify how it ensures fair social and labor conditions throughout its seed supply chain.
The company reports that it adjusts its breeding program using feedback from smallholder farmers, including women smallholder farmers. It is encouraged to provide more clarity about the design of this approach.
Nongwoo Bio is the first Korean company to enter the Myanmar seed industry, with the establishment of a subsidiary in 2012. It took this step soon after the country embarked on policy reforms that opened the way for increased foreign investment. Apart from sales activities, Nongwoo Bio is one of only a few companies that also has seed production activities in the country.
The company is active in 11 out of the 13 index countries, and reports having testing locations in nine of these countries.
Access to Seeds Index
South and Southeast Asia