Syngenta acquires MayAgro Seed breeding programs

Syngenta and MayAgro Seed announced an agreement regarding the sale to Syngenta of MayAgro’s greenhouse vegetable breeding programs covering cucumber, pepper, and tomato.

Under the terms of the agreement Syngenta will acquire MayAgro’s breeding programs including all native traits developed to improve virus and disease resistance as well as yield under cold conditions.

Yusuf Yormazoglu, Vice President at MayAgro Seed said, “This sale is a result of our announcement in May 2012 when we decided to focus more of our future R&D investments on crops like sunflower, cotton, and maize. We are very proud to have validated our breeding and development efforts in vegetables with this sale to Syngenta. We look forward to seeing Syngenta realize the full potential of these programs in the future.”

Alexander Tokarz, Head of Vegetables at Syngenta said, “This acquisition will allow us to accelerate growth in strategic high margin vegetable segments. The programs are targeting the fast developing markets of Turkey, the Middle East and CIS and will broaden our pipeline of new varieties with further benefits for growers”.

Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

MayAgro Seed Corporation, headquartered in Bursa, breeds, produces, markets and sells a wide range of almost 20 species of agronomic and vegetable crops including sunflowers, cotton, maize, peas, beans, and more under the MAY seed brand name. Established in 1978, MayAgro has been a leader in the evolution of the Turkish seed industry to a privatized sector and today is one of the largest and most successful privately held seed businesses in Turkey.