Brassicas

Meet our world leading brassica portfolio

Your Partner for Brassicas

Our brassica portfolio includes many world-leading varieties, developed for superior taste and appearance for consumers, and with strong disease resistance and reliability for growers. Our seeds for Brussels sprouts, okra, cabbages, and cauliflowers are preferred by growers because our support doesn’t stop after the sale.

Our specialists are ready to help you with everything from choosing a new variety to optimizing your farming practices. We can answer your questions about crop planning, pricing, local markets, and export opportunities.

We understand your daily challenges and are always innovating to solve them. Our strategic investments in research and development allow us to create the varieties and traits you need most. We use our direct, worldwide experience to adapt successful varieties from one country to perform in different environments and climates.

Our work is guided by one simple principle: your success is our success, and you can always count on us.

High Yield Potential

To successfully meet the South African fresh market demand, we ensure produce availability through the superior productivity of our cabbage varieties. They are known for their excellent weight and uniformity, guaranteeing maximum profitability for every grower.

The Resilience of Our Cabbage Varieties

Our cabbages offer strong resistance to key diseases and pests commonly found in South Africa. Fewer chemical treatments, healthier and more cost-efficient crops, and consistent, high-quality harvests for South African growers.

Market Leaders in Cabbage Performance

Our cabbage varieties are poised to become the dominant choice in South Africa, thanks to their superior performance, high yields, and proven resilience against local climatic and pest challenges.

Clubroot Resistance through the TopRes Trait

Our exclusive TopRes^® trait delivers strong, sustainable resistance to clubroot — a major soil-borne disease in brassicas. Available in cabbage (Kilaherb), cauliflower (Clarify), and broccoli (McLaren), this innovation helps growers protect yields and maintain healthy crops all season long.

Varieties, Traits & Benefits

Syngenta offers a diverse range of brassica varieties for year-round production.

Cabbage: Kilaherb – high yield, clubroot resistance, mechanical harvest option.
Cauliflower: iStem – easy to grow, edible stem, heat tolerance.
Broccoli: McLaren – high yield, clubroot resistance, uniform dome.
Brussels Sprouts: Cryptus – sweet taste, strong standing, clubroot resistant.

iStem: A Unique Offering

Syngenta's iStem is a breakthrough in cauliflower innovation. It is an edible, sweet-stemmed cauliflower that offers convenience for consumers and a unique market opportunity for growers. You can learn more about this variety and see how it's grown by checking out our informational videos.

Uniting for success

At Syngenta, we believe that uniting for success is a core part of our culture. Our local experts work closely with a global network of crop specialists to bring you the best advice and insights. We build strong relationships and listen carefully to your needs, which gives our community of growers a crucial edge. Your success is our success, and we are committed to helping you thrive.

Breeding for Disease Resistance

In the early 2000s, Syngenta was one of the first vegetable seed companies to develop a trait for clubroot resistance. This was initially introduced in our cauliflower and white cabbage varieties and quickly expanded to broccoli and Brussels sprouts.

However, our breeding efforts never stop. We understand the devastation that fungal diseases can cause, and we know that these pathogens are constantly evolving. That's why we are actively breeding crops with stacked resistances, combining multiple fungal disease resistances into a single variety to provide growers with more comprehensive and durable protection.

Reducing the cost of labor

We understand that finding reliable labor is a constant challenge for growers. Our breeding innovations are designed to be part of the solution by helping to reduce manual labor costs.

For example, our cauliflower varieties, such as Guideline and Andromeda, are bred to set curds more reliably and uniformly, even in warm conditions. This reduces the amount of labor needed for manual curd covering.

Additionally, we have developed several white cabbage varieties that are suitable for mechanical harvesting because their heads are set higher off the ground. This innovation allows for greater efficiency and significant labor savings during the harvest season.