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Bayer building Latin America's largest seed factory in Chile

Bayer's subsidiary Monsanto is expanding production of genetically modified seeds in Chile. The Latin American country is a leading exporter of seeds worldwide.

About 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Santiago are the two largest seed production factories in Chile. In September 2018, shortly after the German company acquired Monsanto, Bayer Crop Science announced the modernization of its plant in Viluco. It's the only vegetable seed factory in South America and one of the company's three major factories worldwide.

"We want to modernize the technology and processes so that the factory meets the standard of the factories in the Netherlands and the United States," Yuri Charme of Bayer Crop Science told the Chilean press at the time. The project, named "Demand Fulfillment," would increase seed production by 20% and enable Chile to meet 70% of the demand for the product in the region in the near future, said Charme.

"The project is important for the company and for the country because it positions Chile in the avant-garde of innovation in the agro-industry," he underlined.

Chile is already the leading exporter of seeds in the southern hemisphere and the world's fifth-largest seed exporter, according to data from the International Seed Federation (ISF). The country exported $338.5 million worth of seeds in 2016-17; one-fifth of it was genetically modified, said the industry association ChileBio. An advantage for the seed business in Chile is that the seasons there are opposite to those in Europe.

The vegetable seed processed at the Viluco factory accounts for only a small proportion of seed exports. Much more important are corn, soya and rapeseed seeds, which are processed in another factory located in the rural community of Paine, just a few kilometers south of Viluco.

The majority of the population here lives from agriculture. In 2016, even before its merger with Bayer, Monsanto had announced the expansion of the factory.

The cultivation of genetically modified rapeseed plants is prohibited in the European Union. In Chile, however, cultivation is permitted for research purposes and for export. According to ChileBio figures, in the 2017-18 growing season, around 13,900 hectares in the country were planted with genetically modified seeds, 56% of which were maize, 27% rapeseed and 17% soya.

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