Five Points, California, USA
August 5, 2014
Approximately 1,000 Australian acres suitable for growing S&W's proprietary alfalfa seed varieties are scheduled for harvesting in April/May of 2015
S&W Seed Company (Nasdaq: SANW) today announced it has secured approximately 1,000 acres of contracted seed production in Australia to be dedicated to the company's elite S&W varieties which have historically been grown only in California. This initial planting in Australia is part of the company's strategy to expand and diversify its seed production base in the country and to benefit from a number of favorable economic factors inherent in Australian-based production. These 1,000 initial acres will finalize their planting in the coming weeks and harvested during the company's annual March/April 2015 harvest.
Mark Grewal, president and chief executive officer of S&W Seed Company, commented, "The demand for S&W's most sought after alfalfa seed varieties, which includes the world's most salt tolerant varieties, continues to grow. Our strategy is to expand production of these varieties outside of California's San Joaquin Valley, thereby lowering our costs at the same time we increase supply. Securing these 1,000 acres with our Australian grower base is confirmation that we are off to a strong start in executing on our strategy."
Mr. Grewal continued, "Over the past year, we have been actively trialing new production areas for what we refer to as our 'elite varieties,' namely our best and most in demand S&W branded varieties from our thirty year breeding program. In Australia, we've met with many dedicated alfalfa seed growers to convince them of the profit potential in growing our S&W elite varieties. We were successful in securing seed acres both in SGI's prime growing region of South Australia, and in another, relatively new seed growing region of Australia. The recruitment of new growers in Southern New South Wales/Northern Victoria should help to expand our capability to produce S&W elite varieties, as well as SGI varieties. We are actively looking for further opportunities to expand seed production in Australia."
The Southern portion of Australia is one of the limited number of world regions suitable for large scale production of non-dormant alfalfa seed varieties. The region has a high temperature growing season with minimal precipitation during harvest, access to irrigation water, and an abundance of bees and other pollinators, both domestic and wild. These climatic conditions are excellent for farming alfalfa seed. S&W recently acquired Australian-based Seed Genetics International ("SGI"), the largest producer of alfalfa seed in the country, to further diversify and expand its production capabilities in Australia. With approximately a 50% share of the Australian acreage under contract, S&W believes it has a good opportunity to expand production of its most elite varieties to meet global demand in coming years.
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