Asparagus Deal
November 12, 2009 Walker Brothers, Inc. will produce and market the California Asparagus Seed and Transplants, Inc. (CAST) proprietary asparagus seed varieties. In 2011, Walker Brothers will be the exclusive seed producer for the Atlas F1, Grande F1, Apollo F1, and Purple Passion asparagus varieties. Walker Brothers will also be producing the UC157 F1 asparagus variety.
In the Fall of 2007, an agreement was reached between CAST and Walker Brothers, Inc. to release CAST’s proprietary parental plant materials to Walker Brothers for tissue culturing parental plants to establish new seed fields to produce CAST’s clonal hybrid asparagus seed. CAST’s proprietary, parental plant materials that were released to Walker Brothers Inc. were confirmed by DNA analysis to be the true parents of the CAST clonal hybrids: Grande, Atlas, Apollo, and UC 157.
Plant materials of the Purple Passion asparagus variety were also released to Walker Brothers for seed production. CAST will continue to produce seed in 2009 and 2010 and market their seed until the company’s seed supplies are completely sold out. Walker Brothers intend to begin marketing CAST’s varieties in 2009 and into the future.
Brian Benson of CAST will continue to supply knowledge and expertise to the world’s asparagus industries through his consulting activities. For more information, email [email protected] for California Asparagus Seed and Transplants, Inc. For information on Walker Brothers, go to www.walkerseed.com.
Source: Walker Brothers press release
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