Starke Ayres’s is a specialist in the vegetable, flower and lawn seeds industry, with over 130 years of experience. Headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, it is the leading supplier in Africa and an international supplier of premium varieties of vegetable, lawn and flower seed varieties to the professional grower. It focuses strongly on after-sales service, assisting farmers to successfully grow products that can be taken to market. The company uses a network of in-house sales representatives and external agents all over the world. This distribution network is a key to its international success. Starke Ayres ensures that the product reaches the grower in the best possible condition for crop success. Its secondary business is retail, supplying subsistence farmers and home gardeners with seeds, chemical products and soluble fertilisers. Starke Ayres has its own vegetable seed breeding programmes, supported by ongoing research and development. High quality control is its key differentiator. Its rigorous quality assurance programme ensures that the vegetable seed varieties it breeds, produces and processes are of the highest purity and germination capability. The company has high-end research facilities, with best-practice biotechnology and pathology services and infrastructure. It specialises in breeding its own varieties and sources the best available stock from its suppliers internationally. The company focuses on broadening its genetic base and product range to provide the new genetics that the market requires. It also operates in a number of locations around the world, selecting the best possible locations (in terms of climate and growing conditions) to ensure the highest levels of quality and seed production.