In 2022, Norddeutsche Pflanzenzucht Hans-Georg Lembke KG (NPZ) celebrates the 125th anniversary of its plant breeding.
The origin of NPZ goes back to Hans Lembke (28.05.1877–07.03.1966) who took over his parents’ farm in Malchow on the island of Poel in 1897. At that time, he had already begun his first cultivation work with winter oilseed rape. In the following years, this developed into a plant breeding business where, in addition to winter rape, turnip rape, red clover, grass, winter wheat, oats and potato were also grown. (Further information on our history can be found here).
Today, winter and summer rape as well as grain legumes (field beans, peas) are the focal point of variety development. Climate change, crop rotation, changing options for fertilisation and crop protection as well as further improving protein fraction quality for animal and human use are the current challenges that we are actively facing.
The goal is to establish long-term about 1.2 million ha of each of these crops on arable land. This will save greenhouse gas emissions, increase yields of subsequent crops, produce native oil and protein, and promote flowering insects as well as soil life. All our employees are committed to this task.
270 people across three sites
Today, NPZ Group employs more than 270 staff members on three sites. The company group includes Norddeutsche Pflanzenzucht Hans-Georg Lembke KG with its headquarters in Hohenlieth near Eckernförde (Schleswig-Holstein) and a second site in Malchow on the island of Poel, as well as NPZ Innovation GmbH primarily active in research at the Hohenlieth headquarters and in Groß Lüsewitz near Rostock.
There are subsidiaries in Australia, Denmark, France, Great Britain and Ukraine. Furthermore, and together with other partners, NPZ holds stakes in breeding, production and/or distribution companies in several countries in Europe, Canada, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. In Germany and 16 other countries, rapeseed is distributed by Rapool-Ring GmbH whilst field bean and pea seed are distributed by Saaten-Union GmbH. More than 80 NPZ varieties are grown to a substantial extent in over 40 countries around the world.
