SL Agritech upbeat on deal with China firm

The country’s leading hybrid rice producer SL Agritech Corp. expects a recently-signed joint seed production deal in China to pave the way for the production of enough of its hybrid rice variety to be cultivated in two hectares of rice field in the next five years.

During President Duterte’s state visit to China, SL Agritech signed a cooperation agreement with agroindustrial firm Jiangsu HongqiSeed Co. Ltd. to jointly invest $160 million in the production of hybrid rice seeds.

“The percentage ownership will be 50-50,” SL Agritech chair Henry Lim Bon Liong said in a text message.

China’s Jiangsu Hongqi Seed is a state-owned enterprise. It is a major player in the seed industry of Jiangsu province. Since its establishment in 2001, it has become one of the leading players in China’s agriculture industrialization, agriculture science and agriculture technology.  It sells seeds under the trademark “Hongqi” in more than 180 countries.

“The seed production will be in China. The variety is ours,” Lim said, referring to SL Agritech’s high-yielding SL8H hybrid rice variety.

“We are expanding our local seed production area in Davao but we need contiguous land and might not have enough farm land to produce seeds to satisfy two million hectares in the next five years,” Lim said.

SL Agritech currently produces hybrid rice seeds in a 600-hectare in Davao Oriental and is expanding to Davao del Sur with another 600 hectares.

“We need thousands of hectares to produce enough seeds for two million hectares,” he said.

Incorporated in 2000, SL Agritech is the only Philippine producer of hybrid rice seeds with fully integrated operations.  It operates two business segments: The production of hybrid rice seeds and premium rice. Majority of the business is derived from the hybrid rice seeds business after SL8H was developed and distributed.

SL Agritech, which aims to debut on the Philippine stock exchange soon, is positioning itself to be the country’s leading proponent of hybrid rice farming technology and industry model for sound farming and management practices.