PLANT breeder Syngenta Seeds has announced the appointment of Samantha Smith as its new UK cereal sales and marketing manager.Formerly Cereal Key Account Manager for the company in the UK, Ms Smith has also held a number of other technical and commercial roles in the plant breeding industry - including quality management, seed production and certification, customer service and sales - prior to joining Syngenta Seeds in 2006.

PLANT breeder Syngenta Seeds has announced the appointment of Samantha Smith as its new UK cereal sales and marketing manager.

Formerly Cereal Key Account Manager for the company in the UK, Ms Smith has also held a number of other technical and commercial roles in the plant breeding industry - including quality management, seed production and certification, customer service and sales - prior to joining Syngenta Seeds in 2006.

“In her new role, Samantha will take on greater strategic responsibility for the UK market development of our expanding portfolio of cereal varieties,” said Robert Hiles, the company's head of UK cereals.

“This will include our spring barley portfolio, such as the new varieties Propino and Garner, together with our malting and feed winter barleys, and will continue with our most recent re-entry into the UK market - with the launches of Gallant and Duxford - of high-yielding milling and feed winter wheat.

“In her previous role, Samantha has been instrumental in developing the company's winter wheat business, and in helping to maintain our strong barley market share.”

Ms Smith said: “With the ongoing challenge of helping growers to respond to grain price pressures, as well as meeting end market requirements for grain quality, I'm looking forward to both developing our existing varieties and bringing our next generation of wheat and barley breeding to market in the UK.”