Dümmen Orange Partners With Taiwan Company on Orchid Research

Posted by Brian Sparks|October 22, 2019

Dümmen Orange has signed a technical service contract with the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) Orchid Biotechnology and Creative Industry-University Alliance (Orchid Alliance) in Taiwan.

Under the contract, NCKU will provide nuclear DNA testing and multiplex analysis of orchid plants. NCKU also invited Dümmen Orange to take out a gold membership of the Orchid Biotechnology and Creativity Industry-University Alliance and become its first international member.

As the first research team to publish the genome sequence of phalaenopsis, the NCKU Orchid Research and Development Center has attracted a lot of attention worldwide, including from Dümmen Orange, which has a phalaenopsis breeding facility in southern Taiwan. Dümmen Orange and NCKU contacted each other in March 2019 to discuss a possible collaboration. Hans van den Heuvel, Managing Director R&D at Dümmen Orange, outlined the initial collaboration projects and signed the technical service contract with NCKU in October.

“This is the first time the NCKU Orchid Research Center will be providing technical services internationally with its five technical service platforms specializing in orchids,” says Hong-Hwa Chen, Director of the NCKU Orchid Research & Development Center and Distinguished Professor of the Department of Life Sciences. “This collaboration opens up great opportunities between Taiwan and the Netherlands in breeding and research in the Phalaenopsis industry.”

“We are very grateful to the NCKU Orchid Alliance for providing these highly specialized technical services and look forward to working more closely with them in the near future, especially with a view to achieving progress in commercialized phalaenopsis varieties with disease resistance, fragrance, shelf life and transport resilience,” says Chunting Lang, Breeding Manager Dümmen Orange.