History

Gerrit Schepers joined PANNAR (then Pioneer) Seed Company of South Africa in 1983 where he headed up the export marketing to Swaziland, Lesotho and Botswana and later on various other countries in Southern and Eastern Africa all the way up to Khartoum. In 1967 the company became the first private company in South Africa to register proprietary maize hybrids for the South African market. The company diversified into a number of field crops, including sunflower, sorghum, soybeans and wheat. The company grew to become a major seed company in South Africa and one of the largest privately held seed companies in the world with operations that spanned Africa, Argentina, the USA and Europe. Gerrit Schepers managed the Pannar Seed operation in Zimbabwe for a number of years in the early 90's after which he moved to Europe to head up Pannar there and later on in the USA.

In July 2013 Pannar was sold to Pioneer Hybrid International, part of the DuPont group. Subsequently it was decided in 2014 to wind up the Pannar Europe business upon which Gerrit Schepers decided to start on his own as Green Harvest in Europe.