We’re powered by people
For 85 years, the Mazereeuws’ entrepreneurial spirit has been a driving force at Enza Zaden. But the true secret to our growth over the years? It’s all about people. Our success comes from the collaboration of the right people—internally and with our customers and growers. While we honor our founders’ vision, we also recognize that our ongoing success is built by the dedicated Enza Zaden team who’ve worked together, year after year, to help us grow, innovate, and thrive.
Touchdown in Sicily
“Once, I found a card with the address of a Sicilian grower in a packet of seed that I had bought from a local reseller.”
This is how Jacob Mazereeuw often began one of his favorite stories—a tale that perfectly captures his no-nonsense mentality and sharp business instincts. In the early 50s, after discovering the grower's address, Jacob wasn’t one to shy away from a challenge. Without a second thought, he figured out a way to get to Sicily—and flew there, eager to track him down. At a time when travel wasn’t as easy as it is today, Jacob’s adventure wasn’t exactly simple. But that didn’t stop him. Without speaking a word of Italian, he found the grower, showed up unannounced, and negotiated a deal that would bring seeds to the Netherlands at a great price. Talk about "chasing difference" and making bold moves!
Bulls eye!
TOne of our biggest breakthroughs came from our maverick thinking: the tomato variety Extase. With higher yields, exceptional resistance, and a vibrant, even color, Extase was a game-changer. For us, it was like hitting a bull’s eye. This breakthrough product not only accelerated our growth but also put us on the map. Thanks to Extase, we were able to invest more heavily in breeding programs, cutting-edge technology, and attracting top-tier talent.
Passion for plants
“My heroes? Darwin for his evolution theory and Mendel, the father of genetic inheritance.”
For Piet Mazereeuw, breeding new varieties is one of the things he lives for. When asked, he will recall every name, every number, every resistance, and every other property and recite them proudly, all the way back to the 60s! With his natural talent for vegetable seed breeding, enhanced by a creative mind and a fearless mentality, he was able to create some of our company’s most successful varieties. His passion for plants and product development has lost none of its force, and he cares just as strongly about them now as he did when he started 60 years ago.
Meet Monique
Monique isn’t just any cucumber—she’s a sweet, hybrid variety with exclusive female flowering and exceptional resistance, introduced in the late 60s. Inspired by the needs of British growers, we used the success of Extase to fund our ambitious cucumber breeding program, and Monique quickly became a market leader in Great Britain and the Mediterranean countries.
Mutual trust
"If we give away our parent lines, we give away our children."
In the early 80s, we saw the potential for our cucumber and tomato varieties in Turkey. Because of local regulations and despite initial resistance, we shared our parent lines with a Turkish distributor, Ahmed Gönen. This led to successful seed production, with Amfora dominating 60% of the Turkish market. Our companies and families maintain a strong friendship to this day.
Sharing an organic vision
Nearly 30 years ago, Jan Velema had the vision of creating an organic world. In those times, the importance of organic food production was not a widely held view. Still, Jan persisted in chasing his dream. When he met Enza Zaden, it was clear that they shared a common vision, and in 1998 our company became a majority shareholder in Vitalis. This gave Jan the power to innovate and expand his activities. By combining the organic spirit of Vitalis and the innovative power of Enza Zaden, it grew into Europe’s largest organic breeder and producer of organic vegetable seeds. Today, Vitalis is 100 % owned by Enza Zaden.
Tribelli: inspired by consumers
In 2009, we started developing snack-sized sweet peppers for the US market, sensing a consumer demand for tasty, healthy snack products. These little peppers got really popular, and we then took the idea to Spain in 2012. To avoid repeatedly introducing a variety of names and to reinforce our leadership position, we called all these tiny peppers "Tribelli". By 2017, Tribelli had become our largest segment, proving that innovative seed companies like ours can truly shake things up in the supermarket vegetable aisle.
HREZ: High Resistance by Enza Zaden
In 2016, one tomato plant showed remarkable promise. It had that one small difference that would make a big impact. It was the breakthrough that led us to HREZ: our exclusive collection of High Resistance tomato varieties, developed to combat ToBRFV. This virus has been destroying entire crops and threatening the global tomato industry since 2014, causing a significant decline in tomato production yields and rising production costs, and posing a threat to tomato quality at every level of the supply chain. Launched in 2022, our HREZ collection helps prevent the spread and has created a promising future for growers worldwide.
