Beijing, China
September 17, 2019
Origin Agritech Ltd. (NASDAQ: SEED) (the "Company" or "Origin"), an agriculture technology and rural e-commerce company, today announced that the Company has entered into a collaboration agreement with Inova Genética Ltda (INOVA), a member of the Wehrmann Group, from Cristalina-GO, Brazil.
The agreement will involve cooperation in field testing of hybrids of both Origin and INOVA in each other's geographic regions. INOVA will also cooperate with Origin to evaluate corn seed biotechnology traits for application in South American markets. In addition, Origin and INOVA will explore commercial opportunities between the two companies, especially in corn seed breeding, production and distribution in South America.
INOVA is headquartered in Cristalina-GO, Brazil, and focuses on the plant breeding business. INOVA is a member of the Wehrmann Group, which is an active participant of the seed industry and a leading company in vegetable production in Brazil. The company has Dr. Anderson Dona as research head and Dr. Roberto de Rissi as a special consultant. The group website is: www.wehrmann.com.br.
"Wehrmann, which also owns Dois Marcos seed company, is an important seed industry player in Brazil and has many years of experience in both the soybean and corn seed businesses in Brazil," said Dr. Gengchen Han, Origin's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, "our cooperation with INOVA will expand our geographic access for both our breeding technologies and our biotech traits."
"It's a great pleasure to visit Origin's facilities in Beijing, and we are impressed by Origin's biotech research and their breeding programs. We look forward to an in depth cooperation with Origin both on the biotech front and in conventional corn seed breeding programs," said Dr. Verni Wehrmann, Chairman of the Wehrmann Group.
About Origin Agritech Limited
Origin Agritech Limited, founded in 1997 and headquartered in Zhong-Guan-Cun (ZGC) Life Science Park in Beijing, is China's leading agricultural technology and a rural social e-commerce company, expanding in mid-2018 from crop seed breeding and genetic improvement business to be a leading technology developer in new rural e-commerce platform and Blockchain technologies. In crop seed biotechnologies, Origin Agritech's phytase corn was the first transgenic corn to receive the Bio-Safety Certificate from China's Ministry of Agriculture. Over the years, Origin has established a robust biotechnology seed pipeline including products with glyphosate tolerance and pest resistance (Bt) traits. For further information, please visit the Company's website at: http://www.originseed.com.cn or http://www.originseed.com.cn/en/.