Nufarm expands seed platform with US acquisition

Nufarm Limited announced that it has completed the acquisition of Seeds 2000, Inc., based in Breckenridge Minnesota, USA.

Seeds 2000 is a sunflower seed research and production company with annual revenues of approximately US$20 million. The company has significantly expanded its international activities in recent years and today conducts development and sales activities in the USA, Canada, China, Argentina, and a number of European markets.

The transaction was undertaken by Nufarm's wholly owned subsidiary, Nuseed, and was completed at a total cost of US$55.2 million.

Nuseed is a global seed and traits company focused on the enhancement of food and feed value through seed technology. The company develops proprietary canola, sunflower, and sorghum products that are marketed in over 25 countries.

Sunflower is an important oilseed and snack food crop, occupying approximately 24 million hectares of land globally, and producing approximately 32 million metric tonnes of grain annually.

Nuseed has existing sunflower breeding and marketing operations based in California, Argentina and Australia and recently secured the breeding and germplasm assets of the Super Seeds sunflower business in Serbia.

Nufarm's Chief Executive, Doug Rathbone, said the Seeds 2000 acquisition will complement Nuseed's position in sunflower and, in particular, its strong confectionary sunflower operations.

"Our seeds business is generating excellent returns for the company and this acquisition is a great fit with our existing operations."

Mr Rathbone said the operational, breeding and commercial teams of Seeds 2000 will be fully retained and integrated into Nuseed, providing additional industry expertise and resources to support further growth.

Seeds 2000 President, Steve Kent, said he expected the transition to be seamless and to facilitate additional opportunities to expand the business in both the US domestic market and globally.