Monsanto Acquires Brazilian Seed Company

Monsanto Company announced that it will continue to enhance its global corn germplasm portfolio with the acquisition of Agroeste Sementes, a Brazilian corn seed company that focuses on hybrid corn seed production and serves farmers throughout Brazil, the world's third largest corn-producing country. Under the terms of the agreement, the company acquired ownership of 100 percent of Agroeste's businesses including its corn seed brands. Agroeste's corn seed products are currently used in approximately 10 percent of Brazil corn areas. Monsanto's corn seed products on the other hand are sold locally through the DEKALB and Agroceres seed brands which are currently used in approximately 30 percent of corn areas in Brazil.  

"Agroeste will serve as an important complement to our existing national brand approach in Brazil," said Brett Begemann, Monsanto's Executive Vice President for Global Commercial. "The acquisition will allow our companies to provide new and innovative higher yielding seed offerings through multiple brands and will bolster our genetics platform for the introduction of our trait technologies longer term." Monsanto also noted that the combination of  the  germplasm portfolios of the two companies is expected to support the introduction of biotech trait offerings in Brazil.

Read the press release at http://monsanto.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=525.