The Pannar Group has confirmed the appointment of Matt Foley as General Manager of Pannar Seed Inc. d.b.a. Kaystar Seed operating out of Huron, South Dakota, USA. 

Announcing the appointment, the International Director of Pannar, Andrew Jarvie, first paid tribute to Ken King, founder of Kaystar Seed and a very well known and respected seed business personality who has devoted many years of his life to Kaystar Seed and also to the Midwest seed industry in general, and who will be retiring from Kaystar this month.

He continued by saying: “Matt Foley is a career seedsman who has been active in the US seed business for over 15 years. Until recently he was a member of the Mycogen Seed Marketing Management team operating in the Midwest. Matt holds an M.Sc. degree in Plant Breeding and is well experienced in all facets of crop seed production, conditioning and marketing in the Midwest. We are delighted to have him on board and are confident that he will capitalize on the solid base established by Ken and optimize the growth and contribution of Kaystar Seed to our overall US business.”

Kaystar Seed of Huron, South Dakota (photo), now Pannar Seed Inc., was acquired by the Pannar Group in 2001 and has since developed into a regional seed house supplying growers in the Midwest with corn, sunflower and sorghum hybrid seed as well as soybean and forage varieties under the Kaystar brand. The company operates from modern facilities in Huron and has marketing operations throughout the Midwest.

Earlier this year the Pannar Group also acquired Pau Seeds Inc., a well established US corn genetics company, which recently changed its name to Pannar Genetics Inc. The South African owned Pannar Group was founded in South Africa in 1958 and has grown to become the largest seed group in Africa, covering a wide range of field crop and vegetable seeds. The Group owns seed companies in the US, EU, Argentina and several African countries, and operates in many other countries through an extensive network of distributors and licensees.