Laverton North, Victoria, Australia
May 19, 2010

Nufarm Limited announced today that it has acquired the oilseed and confection sunflower interests of California based Flower Genetics LLC. Flower Genetics is involved in the breeding, production and marketing of elite sunflower hybrids.

The acquisition, by Nuseed Americas Inc – a wholly owned subsidiary of Nufarm Limited – was completed last week. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Nufarm’s General Manager of Seeds, Brent Zacharias, said the acquisition will broaden Nufarm’s sunflower seed development pipeline and improve the speed and efficiency of breeding, testing and production of sunflower seeds in Nufarm’s US, Argentina and Australian locations.

“The addition of the Flower Genetics interests immediately places Nufarm into a leading global position in the rapidly growing confection segment of the sunflower seed market.
“Flower Genetics is the proprietary owner and developer of the top selling confection hybrids to China, the world’s largest and fastest growing confection sunflower hybrid seed market.”

Nuseed Americas is pleased to have retained Thomas Heaton, PhD, owner and founder of Flower Genetics. Dr. Heaton brings a wealth of experience and knowledge having also held senior R&D positions in Calgene, Inc, and Pioneer HiBred International prior to founding his own company. “Together, Nuseed and Dr. Heaton will continue the straight-forward collaborative approach to sunflower customers and strategic partners.”
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Nufarm’s seed interests are focused in the canola, sorghum and sunflower seed markets providing elite products to global customers in over 25 countries.

Website: http://www.flowergenetics.com/

Published: May 19, 2010