CropTailor is a plant biotechnology company which focus on trait development of oats through advanced technology. By taking advantage of mutagenesis, advanced biochemistry and genomic tools, new specialized oat varieties with enhanced agronomic and health promoting properties are developed.
CropTailor’s vision is simple: we want to unlock the huge potential of oats for the benefit of people and planet.
Read more about us under "Our Services" and "Our Technology".
CropTailor was founded in 2007 in Gothenburg, Sweden by Olof Olsson who at the time was professor in molecular biology at Gothenburg University. Among the early investors in CropTailor where Rickard Öste’s Lundagrion AB. Later investors during the Gothenburg years include Lantmännen – a Swedish agricultural cooperative owned by 19.000 farmers.
2012 the company was re-located to the department of Pure and Applied Biochemistry at the Chemistry Centre at Lund University in Lund, Sweden and in June 2015 Lantmännen acquired the share majority in CropTailor providing economic stability and resources to the company. The Chemistry Centre at Lund University is the largest education and research center of chemistry in Scandinavia and provided CropTailor the facilities needed for expanding our research and to develop and improve the existing oat population.
In the following years, the research consortium ScanOats where formed. Research performed within ScanOats has culminated in a lot of insights into the unique properties and workings of the CropTailor mutant population. This includes, inter alia, data about agricultural, industrial processing and health beneficiary properties of different CT-lines. In 2017 CropTailor, as first in the world, sequenced the entire oat genome and collaboration with ScanOats a high-quality assembly of the genome was created.
In 2021 Lantmännen acquired an even larger part of CropTailor’s stocks and Alf Ceplitis, group leader of Lantmännen’s population improvement program and board member of CropTailor, became the CEO of CropTailor. In 2022 CropTailor had it's first oat variety added to the Swedish variety list, this year Lantmännen acquired the remaining stocks of CropTailor and now has a 100% ownership.
Oat is a cereal crop like wheat, barley, rye, maize, rice and others. It is grown mostly in the temperate regions of the World, and most of the production is used for animal feed. However, a steadily growing proportion of the oat crop is being used for human consumption. Oat has several health promoting properties: it contains, for example, a dietary fibre known as betaglucan that is beneficial to gut health and has a scientifically proven effect of lowering blood cholesterol levels (COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 1160/2011) and contributing to the reduction of rising blood glucose levels after a meal (COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 432/2012). Oat is also a crop that requires very little input of fertilizers and pesticides compared to other cereals. Oat has an enormous potential to contribute to human and planet well-being, and we are here to make that happen!
Crop Tailor is part of Lantmännen, an agricultural cooperative owned by 19,000 Swedish farmers with operations throughout the value chain from farm to fork. Oat breeding at Lantmännen has a history dating back to the 1890s, and today Lantmännen runs one of the world’s leading and most innovating oat breeding programs, delivering top class feed, milling, and special quality oats for an international market. Read more lantmannen.com
