DES MOINES, US/GREYTOWN, SOUTH AFRICA: DuPont and Pannar Seed (Pty) Limited closed on a transaction in which DuPont Pioneer acquired majority ownership in Pannar, a South Africa-based seed company with operations throughout Africa and in other parts of the world. This is a significant milestone in DuPont’s commitment to bring technological innovation to agriculture in Africa.
DuPont Pioneer and Pannar are partnering to increase the pace and scope of research and innovation in the African seed industry, bringing farmers in South Africa and throughout the continent more product choices and better products, faster and more efficiently than either company could do on its own. Pioneer will retain the strong Pannar brand and will grow both the Pioneer and the Pannar brands and businesses into the future.
“The partnership between Pioneer and Pannar is beneficial on many levels. It represents growth opportunities for both businesses, for employees, and for the productivity of small-scale and commercial farmers who form the backbone of Africa’s economy and who will feed the continent’s rapidly growing middle class and increasing population,” said Paul E Schickler, President, DuPont Pioneer.
“One of the key outcomes of the partnership will be the establishment of a world-class technology hub for Africa through which South Africa will become a centre of innovation in seed breeding. A critical benefit of this partnership will be the newly energized product pipelines for Pioneer and Pannar that will flow from combining the companies’ complementary germplasm pools and leveraging the expanded research infrastructure and network under a unified research strategy,” added Schickler.
“By partnering with Pannar, Pioneer will be able to better support agricultural productivity and rural economies and livelihoods through the development of higher performing products for Africa’s farmers. Our research organization will learn from Pannar’s experience in Africa and in turn include Africa in our skills-development efforts. We will train local scientists in our world-class technologies, enabling them to learn from our global research programme, as well as encouraging academic programme in plant breeding,” said Schickler.
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