Società Italiana Sementi (BF) acquires Syngenta's maize seed business unit

Società Italiana Sementi (Sis), a national reference in variety selection, multiplication and marketing of high quality seeds, controlled by BF Spa - the most important Italian agro-industrial group listed on the Italian stock exchange - announces the acquisition of the business unit of Syngenta, world leader in agricultural innovation, for the production and processing of maize seeds, located in thehistoric plant of Casalmorano, in the province of Cremona.

The latter, built in 1961, is characterised by the high quality of hybrid maize seed produced by highly qualified personnel and a consolidated network of seed maize growers, in an area traditionally suited to this type of cultivation. The site has the potential to involve over 1,500 hectares for the multiplication of hybrid maize seed, an element that further reinforces its strategic importance.

"This important investment by Sis represents a step of great strategic importance in the path of industrial growth," said Federico Vecchioni, CEO of Sis and Executive Chairman of BF Spa. Our goal is to strengthen Sis's role as a national reference player in the seed sector for the Mediterranean area; a player capable of combining genetic innovation, production quality and sustainability, contributing concretely to the development of competitive agricultural supply chains and to the diffusion of high quality seeds in Italia and in the countries where BF operates with its subsidiary BF International".

The operation - reads a note - "consolidates the presence of the BF Group along the entire agri-food chain, in line with the vision 'from the genome to the shelf', which integrates genetic research, agricultural production and industrial processing. With the entry of the business unit into the company perimeter, Sis significantly strengthens its production capacity in the hybrid maize sector and takes a further step towards building an increasingly solid, competitive and innovation-oriented seed system".

The Casalmorano plant extends over an area of more than 30,500 square metres and is equipped withthree complete processing lines and an integrated machine park for all operations related to the production of hybrid maize seed, both in the field and in the plant. The nominal capacity exceeds 800 thousand doses of finished hybrid maize, in units of 25 thousand seeds, with a storage capacity of about 5 thousand tonnes of semi-finished product. The site also has 24 storage silos, two cold chambers andCREA accredited laboratories with certified personnel, guaranteeing high quality standards and strict controls throughout the production process. Due to its characteristics, the site allows scalable production, which can also be extended to other crops.