AgroPages-S&W Seed Company expands sunflower focus in Europe-Agricultural news

S&W Seed Company (Nasdaq: SANW) has announced the appointment of European agricultural executive Ernst Topitschnig to the newly-created role of European Vice President of Sales. Topitschnig's responsibilities will include leading S&W's sales expansion in the region, with particular responsibility for building S&W's sunflower operations in Eastern Europe and supporting S&W's alfalfa, grain and forage sorghum efforts within the region.

Ernst Topitschnig is a senior agribusiness executive with over 25 years of experience in the agriculture industry, including extensive international experience in hybrid seeds and traits. Topitschnig has worked with several global seed companies including Pioneer Hi-Bred Inc., KWS Central and Eastern Europe and Nuseed Europe as Managing Director. He also has worked with various companies in Argentina and in China. He has focused primarily on the hybrid markets in Russia, Ukraine and Europe, with an emphasis on sunflower, maize and sorghum. Topitschnig will be based in Austria.

Mark Wong, Chief Executive Officer of S&W Seed Company, commented, "S&W Seed Company is committed to the expansion of our sunflower operations in Europe and are excited to be adding Ernst Topitschnig to lead our sales effort in the region. Eastern Europe in particular is the largest sunflower production region, with greater than 60% of the world's production based in the Ukraine and Russia. Ernst's vast experience not only in sunflower, but in understanding the business environment in the region should serve us well. We look forward to leveraging the efforts of our breeders, which have developed elite disease resistant sunflower seed hybrids with specific oil profiles—both polyunsaturated and linoleic—and strong yield potential for different growing conditions around the world."

Mr. Topitschnig commented, "S&W has a well-integrated range of strategic agricultural solutions, separately and together presenting great opportunity and value to industry. I'm extremely proud to be joining this team. S&W has a leading sunflower research and development program, with breeding facilities based in Hungary, Australia and Argentina. The company is the largest sunflower operator in Australia with a tremendous opportunity as we expand the focus throughout the rest of the world with unique products. Global markets are hungry for more of this kind of quality in all crops, and I believe S&W is well placed to service this demand."

David Callachor, Executive Vice President - International, said "Ernst's appointment is a further step in S&W's strategies to provide a single-source solution for farmers seeking excellence in all key premium seed varieties. Ernst has a wealth of experience in multi-national seed operations and is briefed to consolidate and grow our entire European business, with a particular focus on leading our global sunflower strategy in Eastern European countries such as Ukraine, Russia, Romania and Hungary. We are delighted that he is bringing his expertise to our team."