Syngenta seeking buyer for Hawaii operation

A Swiss agriculture giant is looking for a buyer for its Hawaii operation, which includes about 6,000 acres it owns or leases on Oahu and Kauai.

Syngenta AG, which is in the midst of a $43 billion acquisition by China National Chemical Corp, and involved in lawsuits and protests over genetically modified crop farming and pesticide use, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser it will seek to have its existing seed work here continue to some degree under contract with a new owner.

The company also added that it plans to remain part of the state’s agricultural industry. It has 105 full-time Hawaii employees.

Syngenta, whose presence in Hawaii stretches back nearly 50 years, has 28,000 employees in about 90 countries. It had $13.4 billion in sales last year mostly from seeds, insecticides, herbicides and fungicides.

Syngenta told the newspaper that there will be no sale-related changes to its Hawaii operations or employees until a transaction is completed, which was expected to happen by June.

Spokesman Angus Kelly declined to say why the company was selling other than it being “a change of approach to the business model.” He also declined to say whether the decision to sell was related to the pending acquisition of Syngenta by China’s state-owned chemical company known as ChemChina.