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Alellyx and CanaVialis announce technological partnership with Monsanto

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Brazil
June, 2007

The companies Alellyx and CanaVialis, both controlled by Votorantim New Business, and Monsanto, signed a broad collaboration agreement for the interchange of technologies of interest to both companies. “This technological partnership will allow Alellyx and CanaVialis to provide the sugar-alcohol sector with technologies developed by Monsanto. In addition, it will allow Monsanto to use technologies developed by our companies”, stated Fernando Reinach, CEO of Votorantim New Business.

The first products resulting from this agreement will be varieties of sugar-cane resistant to insect attach and varieties that tolerate herbicides. These technologies will allow CanaVialis’ customers to increase the productivity of reeds and reduce their production costs.

“We believe that in the next few years, the efforts of this partnership will be able to benefit sugarcane producers in regions where malignant plants and insect pests render handling and production difficult. In addition to the farmers, the environment will also be benefited, since our technologies for tolerance to herbicides and resistance to insect pests contribute toward reducing the use of agrochemicals and emission of greenhouse gases, to the extent in which operations with machines reduce in the field”, stated Alfonso Alba, president of Monsanto Brazil.

Alellyx, a company of applied genomics, was founded by the Brazilian scientists who sequenced the genome of sugarcane and of the first plant pathogen (Xylella fastidiosa). CanaVialis, created by the geneticists who developed large part of the sugarcane varieties planted in Brazil today, develops new sugarcane varieties through classical genetic methods. CanaVialis has contracts to supply varieties to over 40 plants, which represents approximately one million hectares.

Currently, Alellyx and CanaVialis are in an advanced phase of sugarcane variety development, with high content of sucrose and adapted for new agricultural frontiers.

According to Reinach, “thanks to the agreement, CanaVialis will reinforce its technology portfolio, which will help the Country meet the demand for sugar and ethanol at medium and long terms. The technologies for tolerance to herbicides based on glyphosate and selective resistance to insect pests is already being sold in Brazil in soybean and cotton, respectively. In future, sugarcane planters will also be able to benefit from these technologies”.

Brazilian Sugarcane Production
Brazil is the world’s largest producer of sugarcane, with an annual production of about 500 million tons of sugar and 18 billion liters of ethanol. Currently, 50% of Brazilian sugarcane is used in sugar production. The other half is used in ethanol production.

About Alellyx and CanaVialis
The companies Alellyx and CanaVialis are controlled by Votorantim New Business (VNN) and were created over four years ago. Today, they have a portfolio of technological solutions directed toward sugarcane, orange and eucalyptus. These technologies may be used in other plantations, like corn and soybean.

About the Votorantim Group
The Votorantim Group is today one of the biggest private business conglomerates of Latin America. Founded in 1918, it has operations in the cement and concrete, mining and metallurgy (aluminum, steel, nickel and zinc), pulp and paper, concentrated orange juice, chemical specialties, electric power self-generation and distribution and finances markets. Information technology, services, bio-informatics and biotechnology are the areas in which the companies from Votorantim New Business’ portfolio operate.

About Monsanto
Monsanto has been present in Brazil for 56 years, today creating about 1.8 thousand direct and 7 thousand indirect jobs and investing about R$ 3 million per annum in actions directed toward the well-being of the community and environmental preservation. In addition, it has invested US$ 1 billion in the last 10 years in the expansion and modernization of its industrial units for Roundup and seeds in various Brazilian states. Worldwide, it invests about US$ 700 million per annum in research.

In Brazil, Monsanto produces herbicides from the Roundup® Family, one of the most sold products worldwide for control of malignant plants, due to its low toxicity and high efficiency, and corn, soybean, sorghum, cotton seeds and greens. The company is also a pioneer in the area of agricultural biotechnology, offering farmers from many parts of the world the possibility of choosing seeds that require less use of pesticides and lower production cost.

 

 

 

 

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