Over the coming two years, the Zeraim Gedera Company will invest some $1 million in the establishment of an R&D and demonstration facility in Mexico. The Company has finalized its plans for the establishment of the facility near the city of Culiacan in the State of Sinaloa.

Ohad Zuckerman, CEO at Zeraim Gedera said that Mexico serves as a vegetable storehouse for the USA and the establishment of the facility will bring Zeraim Gedera closer to the American markets. It will support the Company’s increased involvement in the supply chain and enable rapid reaction to trends in American vegetable consumption. To manage the facility, Zeraim Gedera has set up a new subsidiary company called Zeraim Mexico, which will manage the Company’s activities in this market and protect the Company’s intellectual property rights.

According to the CEO of Zeraim Gedera, the R&D activities will initially focus on the breeding of tomato, cucumber and pepper varieties for open field, greenhouse and net house crops and the Company plans future investments to the sum of half a million dollars each year in the new development programs. During 2005, the turnover for Zeraim Gedera activities in Mexico will reach some $1.5 million and the Company seeks to double that turnover within a period of two years.