Syngenta to Spend $65 Million on New China Seed Research Center

By William Bi

Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Syngenta AG, the world's biggest maker of agricultural chemicals, said it will spend $65 million in five years opening a research center in China to tap into the country's growing demand for food and plant technology.

The center, located in Beijing's Zhongguancun district, China's equivalent of Silicon Valley, will be built next to its newly opened leased facility, and conduct gene studies for corn, soybeans and biomass for alternative fuels, the company's Beijing operations said in an e-mailed statement.

China, the world's biggest crop grower, is struggling to feed itself as double-digit gains in incomes fuel consumption of meat and dairy, while urbanization strains land and water. China must boost crop yields and accelerate the use of engineered seeds, Minister of Agriculture Sun Zhengcai said July 19.

Building the center will allow the company to ``work more closely with Chinese research institutes'' and help its U.S. research work, the statement said. The initial 100 staff will grow to 200 when the building is completed in 2010, it said.

The project is Syngenta's second biotechnology research center globally, Aida Gao, the operation's spokeswoman, said by phone today. It is the first overseas-funded agricultural genetic research facility in China, she said.

Syngenta acquired a 49 percent stake in a Chinese corn seeds company, Sanbei Seed Co., in Hebei early this year, the statement said.

To contact the reporter on this story: William Bi in Beijing at wbi@bloomberg.net