Calyxt announces high oleic soybean seed sales agreement with Perdue AgriBusiness

Calyxt, Inc., a plant-based technology company, announced that it has signed a non-exclusive seed distribution agreement with Perdue AgriBusiness, an independent operating company of Perdue Farms. Per the terms of the agreement, Perdue AgriBusiness will buy seed starting in the 2021 planting season.

Under the seed distribution agreement, Perdue AgriBusiness will contract with growers for grain production and processing under an identity preservation process. Perdue will contract directly with farmers for the 2021 high-oleic soybean growing season, which was previously done by Calyxt from 2017 to 2020.

“Once we advanced the Calyxt business model to focus on leveraging our plant breeding intellectual property and proprietary gene-editing tool TALEN^® technology, we sought partners to engage in contracting, growing, grain production, processing, and sales to end use customers,” said Vince Restucci, vice president of agronomy services. “Perdue AgriBusiness is well suited to help take the Calyxt soybean line to the next level by utilizing their extensive, vertically integrated production system, freeing the Calyxt team to focus on advancing our research and development pipeline’s next plant-based breakthroughs.”

As Perry Aulie, senior vice president of value-added products for Perdue AgriBusiness, explains, “Perdue AgriBusiness has pioneered the high-oleic heart healthy soybean oils since they were first launched in 2013. We’re seeing more and more food companies asking for high-oleic products, and we’re committed to leading in this value-added space. We are excited to expand our portfolio to include Calyxt high-oleic seeds as we expand our supply to meet the growing end user demand.”

Calyxt has three go-to-market strategies for its product candidates: seed sales, trait development and licensing, and technology licensing. This seed sale agreement is the Company’s first for that go-to-market strategy, and Calyxt’s recently announced trait license agreement with S&W Seed Company represented the first such agreement for that go-to-market strategy.