S&W Seed Company expands focus in hybrid Crops with appointment of David Callachor

S&W Seed Company is pleased to announce the appointment of David Callachor as Commercial Manager – Hybrid Crops. Callachor will oversee sales and marketing and future development of the S&W hybrid sorghum and sunflower seed business on a global basis.

S&W acquired its hybrid sorghum and sunflower seed business from SV Genetics (“SVG”), a private Australian company specializing in the breeding and licensing of proprietary hybrid sorghum and sunflower seed germplasm, in May 2016. SVG’s sunflower breeding program had developed a series of proprietary germplasm that exhibited high yield, high oil, disease resistance, and outstanding standability, on a global basis. Its sorghum program represented a full pipeline of products developed with red and white grain sorghums, high tannin, resistance to the sugar cane aphid, and grain sorghums with high levels of heat and drought tolerance. In addition, SVG’s forage sorghum program included a pipeline of sudan and sweet sorghums focused on improving seed production yields to lower costs of production and improve digestibility.

S&W hybrid seed is currently produced in several countries and is sold in Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, China, Japan, Libya, Pakistan, South Africa, Ukraine and the United States. Market development is underway in many additional countries.

Mark Wong, CEO of S&W Seed Company, commented, “We are dedicated to the expansion of our hybrid sorghum and sunflower programs. As we look to the future, we believe these programs will become an increasingly larger component of our business. The addition of a seasoned, commercial-minded executive such as David Callachor is an important step in building upon the strong trait development work completed by our breeding team. We look forward to establishing expanded market share while continuing to develop traits that we anticipate will allow us to become significant players in these crops going forward.”

Callachor is a senior agribusiness executive with over 20 years of experience in the agriculture industry, including extensive international experience in hybrid seeds, traits and new technologies. Callachor has worked with several global seed companies including Advanta Seeds and, most recently, Limagrain as Group Sales Manager for South East Asia. He also has worked with Landmark, an Agrium Company, for several years in Australia.

Callachor will be based in S.E Queensland, Australia and can be contacted at davidcallachor@swseedco.com.