This strategic move, we believe, will give our clients, agents, agro-input shops and farmers much easier access to our brand of vegetable seeds at a competitive rate and assure supply consistency. The central geographical location will enable us to serve other neighbouring countries, including the Republic of South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and beyond.
STARKE AYRES is the foremost African specialist and global supplier of premium vegetable, flower, lawn as well as turf grass seed varieties for commercial and home garden planting. With more than 140 years of experience, we remain committed to continuous growth, innovation, and superior customer service.
STARKE AYRES has a significant marketing and distribution network, extending from our headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa, to more than 60 countries around the world. Founded in 1877, STARKE AYRES is an expert vegetable, flower, and lawn seed provider. We specialise in breeding our own seed varieties and source only the best available stock from our international suppliers. We are the leading vegetable seed supplier in Africa and preferred international supplier of premium varieties of seed to professional growers.
At STARKE AYRES, our business focuses strongly on after-sales service, assisting farmers to successfully grow products that can be taken to market successfully, assuring returns on investment. We use a network of in-house sales agronomists and reputable agents worldwide to assure attainment of the above objective. Our commitment to quality has resulted in accreditation of our Quality Assurance Laboratory by the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA). Our accredited laboratories have proven their technical competence in carrying out seed testing in accordance with the ISTA rules and operate an effective quality management system. As a member laboratory, STARKE AYRES is authorised to issue ISTA Orange International Certificates.
STARKE AYRES’ strategic focus is on the development of vegetable seed varieties that meet and exceed growers’ current vegetable production needs. We focus on broadening our genetic base and product range to provide the new hybrid varieties that resolve current production and market challenges farmers are facing around the world.
We endeavour to anticipate future needs through strategic alliances with various groups, including direct interaction with commercial vegetable growers, processors, and vegetable buyers. Our dedicated breeders, research scientists and vegetable researchers located at our various research facilities, guarantee that our capabilities and research focus areas continue to expand.
While our applied breeding is concentrated at our five South African research stations, STARKE AYRES has breeder trial sites further north in Africa, in the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Hungary and New Zealand.
Disease-resistance and tolerance to abiotic stresses are important objectives in all STARKE AYRES breeding programmes. As a result, many of its current commercial vegetable seed varieties are characterised by their uncomplicated growability.
In the East African market, we have successfully introduced superior hybrids to the farming community ranging from hybrid squash, French beans and cabbages to tomatoes, carrots and onions. We have registered success stories on hybrid squash STAR 8021 and STAR 8023, beans STAR 2053/4, cabbages STAR 3316, STAR 3317 and KILIMO F1, tomatoes STAR 9065, 9068 and 9082 F1, onion RED CREOLE, DOMINATOR F1 (red), ROSADA F1 (pink) as well as IRATI F1 (yellow). Additionally, watermelon TIGER F1 has been able to perform exceedingly well giving very high yield with the sweetest fruits, large desired-sized fruit with excellent keeping quality as well as transportation ability.
