Changsha-based seed company LongPing High-Tech Agriculture is investing US$100 million to enlarge its presence in Brazil.
The company, which focuses on the development, planting and packaging of seeds, maintains industrial facilities in Paracatu, Minas Gerais state, and in Primavera do Leste, in Brazil’s top grain state of Mato Grosso.
Chief Executive Aldenir Sgarbossa told Reuters that Long Ping’s Brazil office, which already oversees operations in the United States, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile, will lead an international expansion.
“We say we are doing in 18 months something that would normally take 10 years,” Sgarbossa added.
LongPing is preparing the commercial launch of a new sorghum seed aimed at Brazilian farmers next January, while also working to adapt a Chinese soy seed to Brazilian conditions that could be launched by the 2025/2026 crop season, Sgarbossa said.
LongPing’s plans for the Brazilian market, where it sells products under the Morgan and Forseed brands, means fiercer competition for rivals from Germany and United States like Bayer and Corteva.
In the future, corn will be LongPing’s top seed platform, soy second and sorghum third, Sgarbossa said.
LongPing, which was set up in 1999 and acquired by CITIC Group in 2016, bought its corn seed business from DowDuPont in Brazil for US$1.1 billion in 2017.
