India sees itself as Syngenta focus

June 20, 2012 11:30 AM

 

Syngenta is reported to have a plan to stress doing business in India with vegetable and rice products being introduced to assist the country’s farmers and also advancing its involvement in the retail trade end of business within India.
 
“Vegetable business is big in India. It is getting bigger. We would like to integrate vegetable seeds business with crop protection chemicals and offer them to growers there,” according to a quote by The Hindu Business Line Web site attributed to Michael Mack, chief executive officer of Syngenta.
 
The Business Line reporter also wrote, “What offers hope to Syngenta is that India is moving into an advanced retail trade with the Indian government keen on allowing foreign direct investment in the retail sector (though it has run into opposition hurdles currently).”

There was no specific reference to biotechnology advancements in crop production for India but Mack was quoted as suggesting that Syngenta “would like to offer seeds that will ensure disease-free crops and produce uniform size vegetables.”

To those familiar with biotech, it is thought that biotech crops are probably the easiest ways for advancements in production, especially in less sophisticated cropping systems, but movement in the Indian government allowing biotech food cropping hasn’t been revealed.

Syngenta has been active in developing integrated production systems to assist farmers around the world including a new sugarcane production system and the Tegra rice paddy seedling planting system and consulting assistance for rice production, the Business Line writer noted.   

The writer also interpreted what Mack said as leading to Syngenta officials being likely to announce a strategy for the vegetable business in India in September. He suggested this would be part of Syngenta focusing on Asia-Pacific for company growth.