In the legal predecessor of the Cereal Research Ltd. Co. in Szeged, the breeding and research of durum wheat began in 1972 at the Cereal Research Institute on the initiative of Zoltán Barabás, Péter Erdei and Imre Szániel. The program began with the selection of winter-hardy (facultative type, cold-tolerant, but spring-type) segregating F2, F3, F4 generations from the CYMMIT Anatolian station, which in 1980 resulted in two state-recognized durum varieties: GK Minaret and GK Basa. Even at the time of the selection of the CYMMIT material, was created a breeding material that better suited the Hungarian climate by crossing Italian, French, Russian, Romanian and Slovak durum varieties and strains. The following state-recognized autumn durum varieties were born by selecting the segregating generations of these combinations: GK Pannondur in 1985, GK Tiszadur in 1992, GK Novodur in 1993; in 1996 GK Bétadur, in 2001 GK Diadur, GK Selyemdur and in 2015 GK Julidur.
With the introduction of GK Minaret and GK Basa and subsequent varieties into public cultivation, the domestic durum processing (mill) and consumer (dry pasta) industry and market interest in domestic durum cultivation began. Overall, this meant the establishment of durum in Hungary and laid the foundations for the entire vertical (breeding-public cultivation-processing-dried pasta, wheat and semolina export).