Beijing, China
March 4, 2008
Origin Agritech Limited
(NASDAQ GS: SEED) (“Origin”), a leading technology-focused
supplier of crop seeds and agri-biotech research in China, today
announced it has approved five new corn hybrid for its product
line for distribution during the next sales season in provinces
throughout Central and West China. The company now has over 50
total corn hybrids approved for sale throughout China and its
revenues consisted of 74.4% revenues from corn seed in 2007.
The new corn seed products include Ao Yu 1, Ao Yu 2, Ao Yu 5, Ao
Yu 7, and Li Yu 35 approved in Xinjiang, Gansu, Shanxi, Sichuan
and Shandong provinces separately, and should provide increased
product coverage for our company throughout China. This marks
the company's 10th year of their own internal breeding program.
Of the new products, we are excited to announce the acceptance
of Li Yu 35 in Shandong province, which remains an important
corn growing area in China. The Shandong province is second only
to the Jilin province in corn production with 17.4 million tons
of annual production to Jilin’s 18.0 million tons of production.
Li Yu 35 was also approved in Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Anhui, and
Tianjin.
Liang Yuan, co-Chief Executive Officer of Origin Agritech,
commented, “Our accumulated hybrid germplasm from our
conventional breeding techniques forms a base for our next
generation, genetically developed seed. Our strategy continues
to be to accumulate our local hybrid seeds to facilitate our
genetically modified product line. This should not only add to
our hybrid products for us in the near term, but provides a
wider base to build upon and grow our genetically modified
products in the long term.”
The seed variety approval process is one of the most stringent
regulatory requirements in all of China. The approval requires
the applicant to undergo two growing seasons of monitored growth
in at least five different locations in the region. Seeds
submitted for testing are planted together with control seeds,
which are typically the most popular seeds in the testing
regions. Only seeds that have an increased yield of 8% or higher
versus the control seeds, and that rank in the top six among all
seeds being tested are cleared to proceed to the second year of
testing. When successful, the approval is granted.
Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Beijing, Origin Agritech
Limited (NASDAQ: SEED) is one of China’s leading,
vertically-integrated agricultural technology company
specializing in agri-biotech research, development and
production to supply the growing populations of China. Origin
develops, grows, processes, and markets crop seeds to farmers
throughout China and parts of Southeast Asia via a network of
approximately 3,800 first-level distributors and 6,500
second-level distributors. The hybrid seed industry is estimated
at US$2 billion and that is expected to double by 2010. The
Company currently operates facilities in 30 of China’s 32
provinces as well as Beijing. Since Origin launched its first
entirely internally developed seed in 2003, the Company has
developed and commercialized a proprietary seed portfolio of
twelve corn hybrids, twelve rice hybrids and two canola hybrids. |
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