The Founder of the company, Magnus
Kahl, emigrated from Germany to Australia in the 1930's. After World War 2 he purchased a
property close to Geelong and named it 'Belevdere'. During the mid 1940's he commenced
selection of 2 types of onions - a white Spanish type and a brown onion with origins in
the Pukekohe Longkeeper varieties from New Zealand. Later came an early brown onion which
was called Belvedere. The white Spanish and Belvedere varieties survive today.Magnus Kahl died in early 1987 and later that year the property and the onion
seed business were purchased by the Weddell Family. In October 1987 the company was
incorporated in Australia and the name Magnus Kahl Seeds Pty. Ltd. registered. The Weddell
Family still own and operate the company.
In 1993 the office and processing plant were moved to another
property owned by the family at Metung, 300 klms. east of Melbourne.
The company was
operated from there until 2004. Following strong
growth, the company was relocated to Lancefield, Victoria in August 2004.
The new location is about 30 mins North of the Melbourne airport which ideal
for shipping seed to markets anywhere in the world. At the new location the
important activities of trialling, seed cleaning, drying, seed coating,
packing and administration continue by skilled MKS staff.
In recent years a decision was made to specialize in the breeding and production of
alliums. This meant ceasing sales of other products to concentrate on alliums. The reasons
for this were threefold :
 | It is the intention of the owners to remain small, efficient
and specialized. |
| There have been wide spread mergers and acquisitions in the
seed industry around the world in the late 1990's. As a result of this, there is a growing
need for focused, professionally run small companies specializing in premium quality seed
varieties. |
| By having an intimate knowledge of our product we can best
serve the interests of our onion growers. With such a narrow agenda, the company can
concentrate on breeding varieties suitable for a very large number of locations
around the world. |
|
Since 1987, a large number of open pollinated
onion varieties have been introduced, including reds, sweet, hot climate long storage and
cool climate long storage types. As a result the intermediate day browns, whites and
creamgolds offer some of the longest storage types in the world.
Since the early 1990's the company has expanded to include
onion seed sales to many countries. This includes short, intermediate and long day
varieties to a wide range of countries throughout the world.
In 1998, an association with a U.S.A. based onion breeding
company was established to commence a hybrid breeding program. Since then the program has
been expanded to include experimental sites in the U.S. , Australia and New Zealand. This
gives the opportunity to use climatic regions suited to the selection for various
characteristics. For example, the program includes hard globe, long storage in Australia
and New Zealand, processing types in the U.S. and over wintering, extra early varieties in
a region with short day latitude and high altitude to give extreme bolt tolerance.
In 2001 this breeding company was taken over by MKS and the
breeding program has been enlarged and diversified.
Breeding efforts are concentrated on :-
| Processing varieties (peeling, slicing & dicing) |
| Long storage, hard globe - white & brown |
| High solids for dehydration - whites |
| Sweet types - white & brown |
| Many red varieties |
| Over wintering (extra early) - white, brown & red. |
|
The program will continue to expand, but with
exclusive focus on onion varieties for a wide range of growing locations throughout the
world. Both hybrid and open pollinated varieties will continue to be developed under the
program. Seed production is carried out both in the Northern and Southern hemispheres and
in a number of locations depending on the variety.
We offer
a truly specialized onion breeding and seed production company to the industry worldwide.
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