Conservation milestone:
WorldVeg secures over 90% of its global vegetable collections in the Arctic

– 26 February 2026 –

WorldVeg has deposited its latest shipment of vegetable seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, bringing the share of its international genebank safeguarded in the Arctic to over 90% — a key conservation milestone.

The consignment of seven seed boxes contained over 750,000 individual seeds representing 1,650 individual cultivated and wild accessions of chili peppers, black-eyed peas, and pumpkins – as well as onion, okra, brassicas, beans, and other vegetables.

The breadth of seed samples highlights the many benefits of vegetable diversity – supporting improved diets and incomes, strengthening climate resilience, enriching soils, and supporting traditional medicine and culinary cultures.

With this deposit, 92% of the WorldVeg international genebank collection – the world’s largest public repository of vegetable germplasm – is now safety-duplicated at Svalbard, up from just 27% in 2018. Reaching the 90% benchmark is one of several targets that international genebanks must meet and maintain in order to be considered for long-term financial support from the Crop Trust’s Endowment Fund.

Seed boxes destined for the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, ready to leave the WordVeg international genebank. Photo by Neil Palmer (WorldVeg).

“Backing up our vegetable seed collections in Svalbard is critical because it helps conserve crop diversity that farmers and breeders will depend on in the decades to come, and reaching over 90% is an important step in achieving long-term sustainability of this collection,” said Maarten van Zonneveld, Head of Genetic Resources at WorldVeg.

“It also gives our international and African genebanks enormous peace of mind, knowing their collections are as secure as possible as they continue their daily work of supplying farmers and researchers with the diversity needed to grow nutrient-dense food, develop climate-adapted varieties, and strengthen livelihoods.”

The WorldVeg seed boxes deposited at Svalbard during this week’s ceremony contained:

  • 300 distinct accessions of okra, the fast-growing, nutrient-rich, opportunity crop. Among these were several West and Central African cultivated types.
  • the hardy, climate-resilient amaranth, commonly grown for its nutritious leaves and seeds.
  •  the heat-tolerant, leafy vine Malabar spinach, also known as Ceylon or Indian spinach.
  • Many samples from the Cucurbitaceae family, including butternut squash, pumpkins and a number of different gourds: bitter, snake, luffa, sponge, ridge, wax and bottle.
  • Over 50 kinds of cultivated and wild tomato;
  • Several accessions of onion;
  • A range of brassicas – nutrient-rich crops valued for their health-promoting compounds and versatility across diets and farming systems. This included radish; broccoli, cauliflower, mustard, rapeseed/canola, and Chinese cabbage – a key ingredient in kimchi;
  • Many wild and cultivated chili peppers, including those from the same families that gave the world Scotch bonnets, habaneros and the famed-and-fiery Carolina Reaper variety.
  • A number of different protein- and fiber-rich beans, including soy, mung (also known as green gram), adzuki, lima, common, yard-long, and winged, as well as cowpea (also known as black-eyed peas) and lablab.
  • various herbs, including holy basil, African basil, coriander, and dill,
  • Moringa – a resilient, multi-purpose tree valued for its nutrient-rich leaves and traditional medicinal uses.

   

   

The WorldVeg international genebank is the largest public vegetable genebank in the world. Photos by Neil Palmer (WorldVeg).

The deposit follows a landmark deposit of over 3,000 seeds of traditional African vegetables by Africa’s Vegetable Genebank – the WorldVeg facility in Arusha, Tanzania – in October last year. These represented species collected from over 30 African countries and included opportunity crops such as amaranth, jute mallow, Bambara groundnut, African eggplant, and okra – increasingly recognized for their potential to diversify diets, strengthen local economies, and build resilience to climate change.

Read why Norad – a long-term supporter of crop conservation, including the work of Africa’s Vegetable Genebank – believes now is the time for genebank funders to step up, not back.

The work of the Worldveg genebanks contributes to the Action Area on Vegetable Biodiversity as part of the WorldVeg Global Strategy (2026-2033).