How Takii’s sunflowers gained a place in the sun

Takii’s Sander van der Meer.

Becoming a market leader in F1 sunflower (Helianthus annuus) breeding for cutting doesn’t happen overnight. It is a complex and multi-faceted endeavour which takes extensive trialling, visionary entrepreneurship, constant monitoring of market volatility, efficient inventory management, and timely product adaptation. Ultimately, it is about bringing a trustworthy, disease-resistant product to the market that gives growers and retailers a competitive advantage and which will never fail to raise a smile among consumers.

The early history of commercial sunflower production for cutting is somewhat hazy. Ask five of the Netherlands’ most influential cut sunflower growers, and each of them will tell you that in 1985, they were the first to auction off sunflowers. Fortunately, all agree that they found the then-new kid on the block by pure serendipity. They sew some sunflower seed collected from bird feed on a free patch of land, which resulted in three metres of sunflowers that yielded more than one Dutch guilder (0,45 euro cents) per stem.

More than forty years ago, Japanese flower and vegetable seed breeder Takii was one of the first companies to believe in ornamental sunflower breeding. Their specialised business activity quickly gained a place in the sun with a series of good sunflowers that work exceptionally well as cut flowers; hassle-free in production, profitable, reliable, and with drop-dead gorgeous looks.

A field planted with the artisan sunflower Double Sun King in Switzerland.

How it all started at Takii

In 1990, Takii created quite a steer in the cut flower market with the launch of Sunrich Orange. “It was arguably one of the first ornamental Helianthus that suited large-scale production, making for an excellent break crop on arable farms. In light of the then ruling product requirements, the two metres Sunrich had an acceptable height and featured sturdy stems – avoiding the plant from falling over,“ remembers Sander van der Meer, account and product manager Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at Takii Europe, one of the many international subsidiaries of the global acting company.

During a 90-minute conversation, Van der Meer demonstrated his deep understanding of the ornamental sunflower industry and his passion for the job, and the crop is as fiery as the sunflower’s petals. Perhaps, as an ornamental sunflower grower, you couldn’t wish for a better product manager.
While Takii sold millions of the very first Sunrich cultivar, the company’s dedicated breeding team in Japan did not rest on its laurels and prepared for an even better one. In growers’ jargon, this translates as ‘faster and shorter’.

The first Sunrich Orange’s successor was Sunrich Orange Summer, flowering two weeks earlier and featuring a 20cm shorter stem. A few years later came Premier Orange. Once again, each features 20cm shorter stems and two weeks shorter crop time.

With a stem length ranging between 1.50 and 1.60 metres, Premier Orange has reached a ‘critical height’. Van der Meer explains, “In talking with Dutch consumers, it turns out they are often unaware of a cut sunflower production in the country spanning 600ha. It goes largely unnoticed in the field because, contrary to the tulip fields, which explode with colour in spring, ornamental sunflowers are harvested when they are just starting to lift the first petal from their face. So, ideally, all sunflowers should be at ‘worktop height’, allowing harvesters to ‘look them into the face’. At the same time, you do not want work that requires bending. Stem length is also crucial because you need a few extra inches when cutting and packing five stems in the bunch.”

Sunrich Orange, Sunrich Orange Summer and Premier Orange laid the foundation of a new era in sunflower breeding. “Finishing times of all new varieties that come out of our breeding programme are benchmarked against these three varieties: Sunrich Orange 70/75 days, Sunrich Orange Summer 60 days, and Premier Orange 50 days,” says Van der Meer.

Two-toned Ziggy (left) and Marley (centre).

Downy mildew resistance (DMR)

Within the Takii company, there’s a tireless search for new ornamental sunflower varieties to improve yield, looks and agronomic performance over current varieties. All Helianthus cultivars with the Takii name are built on the same quality level that made the first Sunrich successful. However, evolution, especially in the field of downy mildew resistance, remains constant.

Downy mildew is a leaf disease caused by a fungus-like (Oomycete) organism and has long been the arch nemesis of sunflowers. It spreads from plant to plant by airborne spores, and infection is favoured by prolonged leaf wetness. The disease stunts plant growth early and plays an important role in yield decline.

Crop rotation of a minimum of two years between sunflower crops is a way to minimise downy mildew risk. But even then, there’s the risk of windblown oomycetes spores. Another option is to improve soil and crops by applying non-pathogenic fungi and mycorrhizal fungi.

Yet, the cultivation of genetically resistant hybrids is currently the most effective control method for managing downy mildew. Van der Meer elaborates, “In 2018, Takii launched the world’s first downy mildew highly resistant variety for ornamental Helianthus, Sunrich Orange DMR. This is a challenging task, considering that approximately 12 pathogen variants are currently present. We integrated resistance against the five variants which are most present in Europe. 2020 saw the arrival of Sunrich Orange Summer DMR. Next year, the first seed batches of a retooled Premier Orange DMR will become available for trialling by growers.”

DMR sales to Dutch growers, currently accounting for 15 per cent of total sunflower seed sales, is all or nothing. Van der Meer notes, “DMR’s launch coincided with scorching and dry weather and hardly any downy mildew issues during two consecutive growing seasons. Growers approached it pragmatically, sustaining that there is no need for chemical spraying in the absence of downy mildew, leading to a cost saving of €200 per ha. They questioned why, in such a situation, they should use the higher-priced DMR varieties. However, severe downy mildew outbreaks the year after caused demand for DMR to exceed the offer.”

The story illustrates that seed inventory management is anything but simple. Van der Meer comments, “It is challenging to get sales forecasting right each year. Sunflower seed production takes around 18 months, after which the harvest goes through the processing stage, including drying, threshing, cleaning, size grading, quality testing, and packing. Our Japanese colleagues need predictions about the sales volume the company will experience. Not only over the next year but the year after and over five years. So, we always order more than enough inventory to weather unforeseen shortages.”

White rust

At times, creating new sunflower varieties with a set of desired characteristics can shift between feeling you have it all figured out and feeling like you know nothing at all.
Van der Meer recalls how at a farming event held in ornamental sunflower heartland Bommelerwaard, a grower grabbed the microphone after having watched his presentation on DMR built-in resistance, complaining that his newly purchased DMR sunflower crop was showing alarming signs of downy mildew.

Van der Meer continues, “As Takii is a strong advocate for open and frank discussion, we invited all sunflower growers present to inspect the crop in situ. At first sight, it looked as if he was right, but when taking a closer look, we saw a chlorotic, crater-like lesion on the upper surface of the leaf and white sporulation on its underside. These symptoms typically belong to white rust (albugo).

White rust had probably never surfaced because growers always used broad-spectrum fungicides suppressing also white rust. Now that DMR varieties no longer require spraying, white rust becomes more visible. The next big step is white rust built-in resistance, a work in progress.”

With Takii’s sunflowers, there’s always something new under the sun.

Challenges in seed production

Until recently, import regulations for sunflower seeds sourced from outside the EU stipulated that all seeds entering the EU required treatment with a fungicide seed coating against all known pathotypes of P. halstedii, the causal agent of sunflower downy mildew.

At the same time, under the EU’s Farm to Fork and Green Deal strategies, and with mandatory Integrated Pest Management (IPM) anchored in EU legislation, sunflower professionals saw their pesticide cabinets empty rapidly. In 2020, for example, the EU banned Apron XL (active ingredient mefenoxam), the last fungicide seed treatment protecting plants from early season downy mildew.

Catering to the demand of EU growers keen to grow their sunflowers more sustainably, that is, raised from untreated seeds, Takii set up isolated seed production sites in France and Italy. However, in February 2022, Russia began its war against Ukraine (the countries combined account for more than half of the world’s oil sunflower production), and sunflower oil prices quickly went stellar high. As such, the cut sunflower seed production business became suddenly obsolete, with seed producers massively switching to the much easier-to-produce oil sunflowers, which now enjoy high demand.

Van der Meer recalls, “Our head office in Japan halted seed production in France and Italy altogether. Chili was facing capacity constraints. So, we moved to California, where we now produce sunflower seeds in two large-scale locations, and we are delighted to see that operations are running smoothly. Meanwhile, intensive lobbying in Brussels led to amended EU regulation in 2021.

This determined that during seed production of sunflowers, field inspection by plant health officials should ensure that the presence of downy mildew does not exceed the threshold (0%). Fields used for seed production are subject to at least two field inspections during the growing season. The new rules coincided with Takii’s decision to produce and market untreated seeds only, based on two field inspections.”

State of the trade

Asked about 2023 market conditions, Van der Meer notes that it was a good year but one with extreme weather conditions. Trading volumes tell their own story: in 2022, Royal FloraHolland traded 27,788,819 stems through its auction clock, the trade of an additional 18,833,675 stems modelled on supply contracts between growers and retailers.
With an average price per stem (60- 80 cms) ranging between €0.33 and €0.34, sunflowers enjoyed strong demand over 2023.

This year, the ornamental sunflower market was primarily driven by a shortage due to the extremely wet and cold spring impeding early sowing, even on the sandiest soils.
Van der Meer elaborates, “The first sunflowers are usually sown (using a maize planter) as of 1 April once the threat of frost has passed. However, the first colourful sunflowers are always a welcome sight at the flower market and higher priced. So, growers eager to get a head start to choose to sow as soon as 1 March, which this year, due to the adverse weather, was virtually impossible. Roughly speaking, there are five months to sow, but this year, we missed out on most of March and 20 per cent of production. Sunflower production crept up on demand the remaining four months, but eventually, growers sold 10 per cent less through the auction clock, which naturally benefited pricing.”

At the same time, massive EU legislation, further impacts of climate change, labour shortages and soaring input prices are all key influences within agriculture. (Flower) farmers are affected by the same problems, even if the impact of the energy crisis for those in the outdoor world of arable farming and horticulture was felt to a lesser extent.

For growers, the holy grail is to find easy, programmable and disease-resistant plants, and that’s precisely what growers find in Sunrich.

Despite the challenging economic environment, it is remarkable to see how recession-proof ornamental sunflowers are. This stable ranking may have to do with the product’s immaculate and symbolic image. Sunflowers are undoubtedly one of the cheeriest flowers, reminding consumers how important it is to stay positive in a gloomy world. Also, the sunflower is a form of inexpensive escapism offering a cost-friendly alternative to other more expensive flowers.

While the sunflower still is quintessentially a ‘field flower’ – the global oil sunflower acreage is believed to be over 24 million ha (2022. Source: Europe Seed World) – in little than three decades, it has made furore as a focal flower in mix bouquets and arrangements.

Five-, four-, three-, and two-stem sunflower bunches are popular with supermarket buyers. The sunflower is a highly versatile flower; it can be used for any occasion, from birthdays and graduation parties to weddings and funerals; sunflowers dominated the sea of blooms in tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II in the summer of 2022.

Featured is a vase filled with Sunrich provence, slightly heavier-petalled than Sunrich Orange (Summer) and darker leaves.

Growing globally

Aside from the temporary boom in sales during the pandemic, Van der Meer would describe the current market as in a state of equilibrium with a balanced supply and demand.
Over the past decade, the production areas within Europe have remained pretty consistent, with the Netherlands (600ha), the UK/Ireland (400ha), and Germany/Switzerland (400ha) being the major epicentres of production. Southern Europe has between 150-200 ha in production.

“In Europe, the season’s first sunflowers arrive from Israel, followed by blooms from Spain and Italy between March-May and Portugal and France from April to May. The traditional start to the Dutch season is in June and marks the end of imported sunflowers. The last Dutch sunflowers trade until the middle of October, followed by what is essentially a market gap between October and March,” says Van der Meer, who sees potential for growing off-season sunflowers in Kenya. “There are signs that by the autumn of 2024, two-toned sunflowers from Kenya will debut at the Dutch auction clock.”

Europe’s second-largest producer of ornamental sunflowers is the UK, which currently has 400ha in the open dedicated to the flower.
“More recently, economies of scale characterise British ornamental sunflower production with five growers supplying 80 per cent of the blooms to the country’s ten supermarket chains (with packhouses serving as logistics hubs),” explains Van der Meer while sharing footage of seemingly endless, uniform sunflower fields in the flat and marshy land of South Holland, a local government district of Lincolnshire.

Mapping the German and Swiss sunflower industry is more challenging, says Van der Meer. “The growing landscape is dotted with many small to medium-sized growers serving farmer markets and running PYOs, a Pick Your Own farm. German-grown sunflowers come in various forms, colours and styles, with growers easily sowing eight varieties with slow, standard, or quick finishing times to cater for a wide assortment throughout the season. While a Dutch grower can order 12 million seeds of a single variety at once, their German counterpart usually opts for 100,000 seeds of a few varieties.”
Van der Meer sees an untapped market for supermarket sunflowers in Germany, the Balkans, and Eastern Europe. There, the product is still persistently absent on retail shelves. “Germany, for example, is the largest consumer market in the EU, but apart from well-functioning flower hubs as Landgard and Veiling Rhein concentrated in Nord Rhein Westfalen, logistics hubs for ornamentals never really got off the ground. In the long term, it will happen, but this will require vision and stamina.”

Traditional wholesale or retail?

While retailing sunflowers offers increased order volume, more consistent income, and increased product exposure, whether mass-market floral is the best business approach is ultimately an individual decision. Van der Meer stresses, “Mass floral means mass production and high crop density. The Dutch Bommelerwaard is one of the regions known for its quality sunflowers with a seeding intensity of 100,000 seeds/ha. By contrast, retail flowers tend to stick to a 160,000-sowing intensity, which, of course, will lead to longer stems and smaller flower heads (the minimum accepted by retail purchasers is 5-7cm)

Within Takii sunflower genetics, there is no such thing as the perfect sunflower for retail sales, and all varieties perfectly serve the needs of traditional wholesale and retail.

Van der Meer adds, “Fortunately, our sunflower genetics are extremely versatile, thriving well on sandy and clayish soil. Smaller or bigger seed intensity per ha naturally defines the flower’s size and the stem’s length and circumference. But overall, good quality is always attainable, even in high-density production. Whether you like to deal with the pressure retailers apply to their suppliers to bring them everyday low prices is a completely different debate.”

Quintessentially Dutch; Helianthus Sunrich Orange Summer plus windmill.

Mechanised harvesting: Reality or Utopia?

Harvesting ornamental sunflowers is 100 per cent hand work and one of the most labour-intensive agricultural jobs. Van der Meer estimates harvest costs are 35 per cent of the total production cost.

In his opinion, the seasonal workers from Eastern Europe will continue to be part and parcel of the ornamental sunflower fields.

However, he also believes that mechanisation is the way to solve labour shortages in ‘sun floriculture’.

He references a UK-based sunflower grower who supplies sunflowers and Dianthus barbatus to major supermarket chains. This British grower designed a bespoke harvester for his sweet William and adjusted it to pick ornamental sunflowers. Meanwhile, there are two Dutch growers busy with developing a machine. Another machine is also in its development stage in Austria. No sunflower harvester is near a commercial stage, but the large-scale cut sunflower growers in the Netherlands tell me it’s a question of time.”

If mechanised harvesting or perhaps robotised picking is coming, is Takii ready? Van der Meer responds, “Our sunflower genetics currently includes several cultivars which are uniformer than our number 1 and 2, Sunrich Orange Summer and Premier Orange. They all do the job they are hired for, no matter the weather and soil. Overall, there’s a relentless search for more speed and uniformity. At this year’s sunflower trials – coinciding with Sahin’s annual Summer Trials held in August, visitors could spot a remarkable uncoded offspring of Premier flowering ten days earlier and 20cm shorter than Premier Orange. So, yes, we are prepared for a mechanised future, not omitting that making a variety of mechanised proof would take an additional three years.”

Plenty of golden opportunities

With the Takii sunflower range, there is always something new under the sun. Regarding flower shape, Van der Meer references fluffy, fully double flowerheads that look like pompoms.
“Arguably the most beautiful one is ‘Teddy Bear’, but it’s an OP variety highly sensitive to pests and diseases. Plus, it is extremely slow growing. In comparison, a grower can finish his Sunrich Orange crop in two months but will need three months for ‘Teddy Bear’.

Van der Meer can easily enumerate ten different varieties which are sold under the Teddy Bear name. “It is not a Takii variety,” he stresses. “But I must agree it has been aptly named as Teddy Bear continues to resonate through the supply chain.”

Takii, in turn, has its own fully Double Sun King, which is not easy to grow but very beautiful. It’s a variety serving artisan florists. “The market is always asking for something new, and Takii’s answer is the two-toned Marly and Ziggy offering a blend between cream and terracotta, perfectly fitting autumn demand,” enthuses Van der Meer.

Market-driven innovation

Market research plays a crucial role in driving successful innovation. “To understand and meet the needs and wants of the market, we reached out to growers and traders. At the growers’ level, it was about quick crop times and shorter varieties, as seen in Summer Orange and Premier Orange.

Then, we spoke to the floral wholesalers, who would be happy to see an impact-resistant sunflower with more vigorous leaves that can withstand handling and transportation. They also preferred deep yellow to yellow-orange petals to contrast nicely with the dark centre.”

With this feedback in mind, Takii’s team of breeders in Japan created what Van der Meer thinks is ‘the best sunflower in years’, ‘Sunrich Provence’.

He says, “The biggest challenge is to get sellers and buyers on the same page. Promoting a new variety among traders which afterwards is not available only creates frustration. In turn, a grower will not create demand if he launches a new variety, and the buyers have no idea it exists. Meanwhile, our Sunrich Provence is doing very well. We sold 15 million seeds in 2022 and will surpass the 20 million mark this year.”

Upwardly breeding strategy

Even in sunflower breeding, there is always something to desire. “White and red petalled sunflowers are much sought after. Attempts have been made, but they are genetically inferior to Sunrich Orange. The problem is that there are no good parent lines. There’s a white sunflower in the USA, but it has an extremely short shelf life.”

While Takii has not yet succeeded in creating a white or red Helianthus, it certainly does not lack technical prowess in breeding, focusing on the orientation of flower heads. More recently, the company added a spectacular line of Premier Up, with an upwards growing form. Van der Meer concludes, “The buds of sunflowers are heliotropic (their flower heads follow the sun) until the end of the bud stage, and finally face east. With their perpendicular orientation, sunflowers can remain hidden amid the mixed bouquet’s other flowers.

Being an offspring of Premier Orange, Premier Up features short stems and a quick crop cycle, which is also ideal for growing indoors. More importantly, Premier Orange is the only variety in the market without top foliage. So, even if you have to give your crop an extra dose of fertilisers just before flowering, you’ll get to see flowers instead of leaves.”