Chief Executive Officer / Directeur General (Euralis Group and Lidea), Lidea (Lidea Seeds)
Philippe Saux (Euralis Seeds) on Russian Expansion, PBI Regulation, Navigating Global Markets
Philippe Saux, Director General at Euralis Seeds talks with Marcel Bruins at the 2018 ESA Annual meeting in Madrid, Spain from October 7-9, 2018.
About Philippe Saux
In a 2018 interview, Philippe Saux, then Director General of Euralis Seeds, described Russia as a "relevant market" for the company, noting that its genetic portfolio fits the market and that Russia is "supposed to be the main driver of our growing path in the future." He also expressed disappointment with the European Court of Justice's 2018 decision to regulate products from new breeding innovations as GMOs, calling it "a step back for innovation" and stating that it prevents European farmers from accessing the best technology. Saux reflected on his career, identifying his biggest success as having "always trust and supported the innovation and breeding" and his biggest mistake as waiting too long to expand into Eastern Europe. In a 2020 interview, Saux discussed the challenges facing the seed industry, including climate change, evolving consumer demands, and the need to feed a growing global population. He stated that genetic research must continue to address these challenges, noting that Euralis is working on species such as maize, sunflower, rapeseed, soybean, and sorghum to develop resistance to hotter and more extreme conditions. He also highlighted the company's role in supplying organic seeds, claiming that Euralis represents 60% of organic sunflower seeds and 80% of organic soybean seeds in France. Saux emphasized the importance of partnerships, specifically with Sofiprotéol, which he described as a "strategic partnership" that helps the company understand consumer needs and consolidate its activities.
Transcript (16 segments)
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Interviewer0:06
Philip, thanks so much for sitting down with me, much appreciate it. Thank you. You have been in the business for an awful long time, I believe. And what would you say is your biggest success and what is your biggest mistake that you've made in that long period?
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Philippe Saux0:27
Maybe if I consider more than 25 years of experience in the seed business, I have been involved in a lot of positions. Plenty of partners would be enough that the biggest success is for sure to have always trusted and supported innovation and breeding, because it's key in our business to be able to provide the market with innovation. And the second good decision was to develop the business to the east part of Europe. It came maybe a little bit late, but it was a very, very good decision. And at the same time, maybe the biggest mistake was to take too long in making this last decision.
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Interviewer1:24
You would have liked to start earlier, yes? I'm sure you travel a lot all over Europe and probably also outside Europe. What would you say is your favorite place to go to? Plenty of them, but maybe excluding Paris or Rome. Other tourists? I am...
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Philippe Saux1:47
I enjoy farming and I consider that dealing with farmers is always very exciting. So looking at that, maybe the best place, from my point of view, is Ukraine. Ukraine is an amazing country, very good structure, amazing soils, big opportunities. So regarding farmers and our seed business, it's really paradise.
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Interviewer2:17
Mm-hmm, okay, interesting. Yeah, I've been to Kiev and it's an absolutely beautiful city. I know that you have recently expanded your business into Russia. Why is this so important? What do you hope to expect from that?
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Philippe Saux2:35
Well, it's an acceleration of our development. Russia is definitely a relevant market for us. Our genetics fit perfectly with this market, and it's a huge market. For the crops we are working on, Russia is really relevant. We are talking about four million hectares of corn, more than seven million hectares of sunflower, so it's the biggest market in Europe. Russia is supposed to be the main driver of our growing path in the future, allowing us to increase market share everywhere. Yeah, both Ukraine and Russia.
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Interviewer3:23
So Eastern Europe definitely has your... yes. And maybe you kind of developed the farming activity recently, but Russia is about to increase even more farming activity to explore. And Russian farmers right now are eager to get access to new technology, to switch from old genetics to new varieties addressing the nutritional... you mentioned the innovation already before. And in the last few years, we've seen very interesting technologies being added to the plant breeders' toolbox, and they're often regrouped as one big innovation. But unfortunately, last July the European Court of Justice decided that the products from genome editing innovation are to be regulated as GMOs. What is your take on that decision?
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Philippe Saux4:20
As Lidea, we have always supported innovation. So from my point of view, it's once again a step back for innovation. We are eager to allow farmers to get access to new varieties, to get access quickly to the answers we need to face very challenging issues. So for me, it's a pity to not allow European farmers to be as competitive as every farmer in the world and to have access to the best technology seed companies can provide to them. As a global company, we will obviously address the different markets. We can use maybe slow tools for the European market and fast tools for entering other markets. But definitively, for us it's a pity to not be able to take advantage of this innovation.
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Interviewer5:24
I've heard that sentiment many times before. Yes, I believe that almost all of Europe is disappointed.
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Philippe Saux5:33
Is this vision? I think we have to continue to support farming with innovation. Training for innovation is key. They have to face challenges like climate change. Technology, agronomy, and quality are our skills. Our business as a seed provider is to look for new varieties including new skills and new breeding technology. These are just tools.
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Interviewer6:16
You are running, I would say, a global company. But the global environment is not getting a whole lot easier. There are different regulations out there between the various countries, and they're not always aligned. How do you navigate a company like yours through those difficult and sometimes challenging global waters?
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Philippe Saux6:45
Well, for sure it's quite complex. We are operating in different markets. All these countries we mentioned – Russia, Ukraine – different markets, different regulations. Turkey outside of the European Union, and inside the European Union the rules are not always exactly the same. We have to manage with certain complexity. I refer to seed treatment news; it can also be different according to the decision of the country. At the same time, our organization is able to think globally, to always have the global vision of the business, especially referring to innovation. There is no border for climate or for soils, but then we have the administrative border and local rules. So we have the capacity to see the global needs of the market and at the same time to be able to answer locally. So sometimes it is expensive to be able to address properly each part of the market, but we have a global organization that allows to connect the global thinking through the local acting.
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Interviewer8:20
Yeah, I love the slogan to think globally and act locally. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, Phillip, you're a CEO of a very successful seed company. What kind of wise advice would you like to give to us other business leaders in the sector?
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Philippe Saux8:49
Well, for sure we are quite proud of our growth over the last few years, and we expect to continue growing. The market continues to ask for technology. My vision is to be able to establish high standards in all parts of the business, from production through breeding to market approach. Every piece of the company, the business, must run for higher standards always. And on top of it, to make sure that everything is perfectly connected, each part of the business perfectly connected internally, but also to keep interconnected inside the business sector. Yes, I refer to association in order to be able to face the complexity of the market you mentioned before, but also interconnected. Victory in innovation is a common race but also a common battle.
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Interviewer9:50
Okay, thank you very much.
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Philippe Saux9:55
You're welcome, thank you.