Syngenta to buy COFCO seed business

The Chinese grain corporation COFCO International has agreed to sell the Swiss company Syngenta its own seed production unit.

The purchase of Nidera Seeds is first to be approved by the antimonopoly authorities, after which the completion date of the transaction will be announced, Agroinvestor.ru reports.

The companies expect to receive the approval by the end of this year or in early 2018. The terms of the agreement are not disclosed.

It is noted that Nidera Seeds represents the entire segment of COFCO seeds production. As a result of the sale of Nidera Seeds, the Chinese company will lose this segment of business.

Reference: Nidera Seeds produces corn, sunflower, soybean and wheat seeds. Earlier, Nidera Seeds also produced sorghum seeds, but in May 2017 the company announced that it would sell that production to the American company Chromatin. At that time, the deal was connected with the Nidera Seeds strategy to focus on its key agricultural crops.