Limagrain inaugurates seeds processing unit in Brazil‏

French cooperative Limagrain will inaugurate next Thursday its new seed processing plant in Brazil, aiming at corn and sorghum crops. Located in Goianésia, state of Goiás, the plant received an investment of R$ 60 million and the expectation of the group is to have 7% to 8% of corn seeds market in the country, which is currently dominated by giants such as Monsanto, DuPont and Dow AgroSciences.

The task of the processing plant is to standardize the gross seed produced in the field, treating with agrochemicals before delivering it directly to the farmers. In 2011, Limagrain acquired twoplants in Brazil - one from Brasmilho in Goiás and another from Guerra group, in the state of Paraná. However, the cooperative decided to deactivate the plants in the end of last year because they were not modern, explains Lee Anderson Porto, marketing manager at LG Sementes - the brand under which the seeds of the cooperative are sold in Brazil. "The new plant has a production capacity of six times greater than those two old units together." He says.

The plant that will be inaugurated in Goianésia will have an initial capacity of 100 thousand bags of sorghum seeds and one million bags of corn (a volume that can reach 2 million bags). Two old plants had a combinedcapacity of 350 thousand bags of corn seed. "Actually, Limagrain was interested in the market that those companies had, but Ithought of building a new unit," affirms Porto. The cooperative projects to have a revenue of R$ 110 million in Brazil in 2015, but expects to reach nearly US$ 300 million by 2019. Globally, the total revenue of the group will be near € 2 billion.

As the largest producer of seeds in Europe and one of the four largest in the world, Limagrain experimented the Brazilian market in the 1970s, but itwithdrew its businessdue to hyperinflation in the 1980s. In its recent return, it has associated with the Guerra group and created Limagrain Guerra do Brasil for corn production in Paraná, but the agreement ended at the beginning of 2014. The two groups yet partnered on the production and distribution in the Brazilian market of the Jacquet brand products, breads and cakes, which are made in Guarapuava. In another region in the state of Goiás that it has established, Limagrain dropped the unit that belonged to Brasmilho to lift a new processing plant, in which the logistics are benefited from the proximity of roads and railways.

A network of cooperative members in Goiás and Minas Gerais produces seeds for Limagrain in irrigated areas with the use of biotechnology from Monsanto and Syngenta, but the cooperative also improvesthe varieties. Besides processing seeds of corn and sorghum, Limagrain maintains a division of vegetable and started recently to outsource the work on soybeans and wheat. "Our goal is to offer 400,000 bags of soybean seeds in the next two seasons," affirms Porto.

Limagrain also plans an investment of R$ 30 million in its four research centers in Brazil, which are located in Sorriso (Mato Grosso), Goiânia (Goiás), Londrina (Paraná) and Cruz Alta (Rio Grande do Sul). In South America, the group has four other research centers (two in Argentina, one in Chile and one in Peru), besides a processing seeds unit in Chile,with a production of almost two million bags of corn and sunflower seeds.