Present in five continents, the seed company RAGT wants to develop its activity and raise awareness of its multi-species strategy. This notably involves grouping together its subsidiaries under the RAGT banner. In Australia and New Zealand, RAGT Australia and RAGT New Zealand came into being on 1st January 2023.
“The potential for development of our activities is real in South America, Oceania and Africa. We are also exploring North America”, confides Samuel Gasté, New Markets Territory Director at RAGT.
In 2018, RAGT underwent a change in organisation. Previously split into three pillars (cereals and proteins, forage and turf, and hybrids), the seeds activities are since piloted by territory, five worldwide: France, Northern & Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, and finally the New Markets (North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Middle East and Oceania).
“The objective is that each Territory Director guarantees the development of the multi-species strategy of RAGT in the countries they pilot”, explains Samuel Gasté, New Markets Territory Director. “Whereas before, the key to entry was the species, it is now territories”. This is a change that, over some months, has seen the deployment of the RAGT brand on different continents.
“Since 1st January, two new subsidiaries have joined us” explains Samuel Gasté: RAGT NZ in New Zealand and RAGT Australia, in Australia. These two structures existed before, but under the name Seed Force. In 2020, RAGT, who already owned 40% of the companies, acquired them in total. Since then, it has been important to us to bring these two entities under the RAGT brand to clearly identify the group in each market and highlight the diversity of the solutions we offer.
“In Australia, we offer malting barley, forage grasses, winter oilseed rape and canola. In New Zealand the demand is more for fodder beet and forage grasses. These two countries account for nearly 50% of the group activity in forage grasses. Our presence in the Pacific region will allow us, over time to develop our activity in South East Asia.”
Increase visibility to be better known
In last November, RAGT acquired Tobin, an Argentinian company specialising in the research, production and commercialisation of sorghum, and is recognised as a major player in this market.
“The objective is to merge this structure with our local subsidiary, RAGT Argentina, to then market our solutions under two brands – RAGT and Tobin,” he continues. “The potential for development in our activities is real in South America, Oceania and Africa. We are also exploring North America. But that won’t happen without recruiting new talent”, he admits. “To communicate and capitalise on the RAGT brand, we need to increase our visibility and international presence – a strategy which will also attract future employees.”
Anne Gilet
Journaliste à Référence-agro