Longmont, Colorado, USA
November 2, 2020
S&W Seed Company (NASDAQ: SANW), a global agricultural company headquartered in Longmont, Colorado announced today that it has agreed to commercial terms with Calyxt, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLXT) headquartered in Roseville, MN for the exclusive license of an improved quality alfalfa seed in the U.S. and other select geographies.
S&W Seed Company worked in collaboration with Calyxt to identify a novel, proprietary trait for improved forage quality in commercial alfalfa production. The new trait, branded as IQ™ Alfalfa (IQA), gives farmers a new way to produce alfalfa forage with improved ruminant digestibility for livestock. S&W Seed Company will market IQA products under its Alfalfa Partners brand and will also offer IQA licenses to industry partners.
"S&W Seed Company and Calyxt scientists have collaborated on this project for the past several years, leading to this breakthrough in alfalfa forage quality improvement," said S&W Seed Company Executive Vice President, Don Panter. "IQ Alfalfa will add unique value to the market, and we are looking forward to putting this new technology into select U.S. grower's hands in limited quantities in 2021."
"This announcement is the third press release we have made in the past several months about innovative new technologies we are launching at S&W Seed Company," said Mark Wong, CEO of S&W Seed Company. "Commercializing IQ Alfalfa further demonstrates our commitment to bring novel technologies to secondary crops which have been largely underserved by large multi-national technology companies."
S&W Seed Company will plant in 2021 research and demonstration IQA plots in the U.S. to demonstrate the value of this new technology. The first products launched in Fall 2021 will be non-dormant alfalfa varieties, followed by dormant alfalfa variety options in 2022 and beyond. More information will be forthcoming on the plans and field results of this new technology launch.
S&W Seed Company's North America product portfolio includes market leading proprietary alfalfa seed varieties, grain and forage sorghum hybrids, and sunflower hybrids. S&W Seed Company markets its alfalfa seed products in the United States under the Alfalfa Partners brand.
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