The Brazilian arm of Chinese seed-maker LongPing High-Tech plans to quintuple its production capacity, from 4 million to 20 million bags, by September and take the lead in the corn seed market.
“We already experienced pent-up demand from all our customers. So much so that we have partnerships with third-parties to produce the necessary volume,” the president of LongPing, Aldenir Sgarbossa, told Globo Rural.
“Brazil is moving towards a planted area of 30 million hectares of corn and expansion will take place in Mato Grosso and the Northeast. That’s why we are investing heavily in Mato Grosso to serve the Midwest, Maranhão, Piauí, Tocantins and Pará,” he added.
The Chinese-owned company maintains one of the most modern seed biotechnology laboratories in Latin America, in addition to offices, testing areas and cold rooms.
Sgarbossa said LongPing, one of more than 2,000 companies owned by China Citic Group, is “going to grow 10 years in 18 months, using the Chinese philosophy of reducing waste, maximising processes, gaining flow and investing in people.”
Apart from corn seeds, in January 2023 the first LongPing hybrid sorghum seeds (Morgan and Forseed brands) will be delivered to Brazilian farmers and the first soybean seeds will be launched in time to catch the 2025/2026 harvest.
LongPing is developing the soybean seeds in Brazil in partnership with a Chinese university to gain a greater share in the largest national agricultural market.
Although there is also research on rice seeds in Brazil, there is no interest in investing in seeds for the Brazilian market, which is considered small by the Chinese.
From Brazil, the company intends to expand the sale of seeds to other countries, and is already operating a research and adaptation centre for corn hybrids in the United States, China, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile. In Paraguay, corn seed sales will begin this year and the North American market should be next.
In addition to the Americas, the expansion project targets the African markets of Tanzania and Ghana, CLBrief reported.
“We want to take LongPing’s expertise in corn and soybean seeds to these countries. There, the climatic conditions, temperature and altitude are similar to those in Brazil and very favourable for the development of agriculture. We want to be facilitators of this process, teach them how to plant and produce grains so that in the future they will also be suppliers to China,” said Sgarbossa.
