Behind the scenes with Paradise Seeds: One of Amsterdam's oldest seed banks

The cannabis industry is a hot topic around the world right now, as big business looks to cash in on what's often referred to as the green rush.

For many newcomers to the field, cannabis represents some kind of novelty industry that has appeared out of nowhere, but of course the truth is very different and the Dutch seed bank Paradise Seeds illustrates just how far these roots go.

This Amsterdam-based company will celebrate its 25th anniversary this year. Launched in 1994, it was fuelled by the passion of Luc Krol, a breeder driven by a passion for growing high-quality cannabis. Back then, the world of cannabis was very different; there was no Internet to share knowledge about cultivation, no industry to meet all the needs of growers and little visibility of the development of indoor grow rooms that would revolutionize cannabis cultivation.

Paradise Seeds was one of the first seed banks to develop high-quality cannabis genetics, and has been at the forefront of a seed revolution: it was among the first to develop and stabilize feminized or self-flowering seeds, while also being one of the first companies to research medical cannabis strains (rich in CBD or with a «balanced» ratio).

With the rapid development of medical cannabis awareness and the decriminalization of cannabis, Paradise Seeds has been involved in groundbreaking projects around the world in recent years.

Long before full legalization by Canada, Paradise Seeds worked with major licensed medical producers, including ABcann Medicinals, and many of the company's strains were developed for end-user medical products.

Paradise Seeds also has a significant presence in South America, where it has supplied seeds for one of the world's largest legal cannabis cultivations. The company worked on the cultivation of 6,500 plants by the Fundación Daya in Chile, which has pioneered a community-based approach by providing inexpensive cannabis-based medicines for medical users.

This year, it will be involved in supplying genetic material to Cannhill, a new Colombian licensed producer, as part of a partnership to manufacture medical cannabis products for export worldwide in 2019.

In addition to its involvement in the commercial field of medical cannabis, Paradise Seeds has shown its philanthropic side, which Luc considers very important. The company has a medical program that offers a 50% discount on seeds for any registered medical user (who can provide a letter of support from their doctor), a commitment that is very popular throughout Europe.

Luc is also one of the founders of the Medical Cannabis Bike Tour, which has raised €450,000 for a unique clinical trial that will treat glioma (brain cancer) patients with a combination of cannabinoids (THC and CBD) and anti-cancer drugs.

Over the past 25 years, the company has won numerous awards and prizes, Paradise Seeds being recognized as a very stable product, with a catalog of over 30 varieties.

World-famous varieties include Wappa, Belladonna, Dutch Dragon and the legendary Indica Sensi Star. It was this strain that made Paradise popular when Sensi Star completed an impressive double, winning the prestigious High Times and Highlife cups in 1999.

While the market is much more «complex» these days, Paradise Seeds has remained true to its core principles: Resisting any temptation to cheapen the brand by using cheaper, lower-quality «bulk seeds» or rushing to market strains without rigorous R&D. Also, by taking the time and ensuring testing to ensure that quality remains high. The company is one of the last to create and produce its own genetics, so...

The catalog is characterized by stable, uniform strains with a high germination rate of cannabis seeds (around 98%).

Luc Krol is always at the center of the breeding program, and each new variety is the result of a process that can take several years before he is satisfied with the result...

That's why one of Paradise's new varieties, the Space Cookies, a version of the very popular Girl Scout Cookies, only arrived on the market in 2018. Time to do things right without falling into the race to release «names in a hurry» to the detriment of the long term and the grower.

Luc confides: «I started this business with a passion for growing the best quality cannabis, and it's still my passion! I could never have imagined that the cannabis industry would grow as big as it has today, and I never thought I'd still have the chance to do it after 25 years. I can't wait to see what the next 25 years have in store!»