Canola is big business on the prairies. This year alone it’s estimated that roughly 20 million acres of canola will be planted across the prairies. The economics of that are staggering. It also goes without saying that the spin off from those acres has a huge impact as well. Crop inputs, agronomic services, seed treatments and many other industries benefit from that huge amount of acres. It all starts with seed.
To be in the canola seed business is to be in at the ground floor of the industry in Western Canada. If your in the seed business, it makes sense right now to be in canola. Syngenta has been the leader in canola seed treatments with Helix but strangely the company has no canola seed genetics of its own.
Syngenta is a global player in rice, sugar cane, corn, wheat and soybean genetics and yet there are no canola varieties in its portfolio. Why is this? Now that canola is about to hit 20 million acres, will this change? I asked David Morgan, Syngenta’s North America Region Director, if they plan to change their canola seed strategy anytime soon? I think you will find David’s answer quite interesting.
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