Seed titan selling island operations

One of Hawaii’s biggest seed companies caught up in lawsuits and protests over genetically modified crop farming and pesticide use has decided to sell its local operations.

Syngenta, a Swiss agribusiness behemoth, announced a decision Tuesday to seek a buyer for its Hawaii operations, which include nearly 6,000 acres of land it leases or owns on Oahu and Kauai.

However, Syngenta said it will seek to have its existing seed work here continue in some degree under contract with a new owner.

“Our goal is to have our employee talent base and facilities maintained, and have an opportunity to contract work with the new owner,” Ed Attema, head of global field production for Syngenta, said in a statement.

The company also added in a statement that it would remain a part of Hawaii’s agricultural industry: “Syngenta remains committed to the unique benefits of developing agricultural innovation in Hawaii — experienced people, stable weather and good soil. Syngenta will continue to be part of the important role Hawaii plays in agriculture and food production for the U.S. and around the world.”

The move by Syngenta, which comes as the company is in the midst of a $43 billion acquisition by China National Chemical Corp., appears to be a reversal of a move the company made in 2008 buying land and shifting from primarily third-party contractors to direct full-time employees including high-paid tech workers.

Syngenta’s 2008 investment included buying 849 acres in Kunia for $14 million and expanding its corn and soybean seed research and production activities.

“It’s a very valuable opportunity to up our game,” Ray Riley, head of global corn and soybean seed product development with Syngenta, said at the time. “It’s a commitment we’re making to the development of people and … what we do in Hawaii.”

At that time, Syngenta had 75 Hawaii employees and worked with another 200 to 300 outside workers.

Today Syngenta has 105 full-time Hawaii employees and a number of contract workers that the company did not specify.

The company said there will be no sale-related changes to its Hawaii operations or employees until a transaction is completed, which is anticipated to happen by June.

Angus Kelly, a Syngenta spokesman, declined to say why the company is selling other than it being “a change of approach to the business model.”

In 2014 Syngenta announced a plan to save the company $1 billion by 2018 through measures that are continuing and include consolidating research and development sites and outsourcing standard activities to allow scientists to focus fully on high-value innovation.

Kelly also declined to say whether the Hawaii sale effort is related to the pending acquisition of Syngenta by China’s state-owned chemical company, referred to as ChemChina. “We will not comment on any aspect of the ChemChina review to respect the confidentiality of the process,” he said via email.

A federal Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States recently gave its OK for the ChemChina purchase, clearing one regulatory hurdle required for the acquisition to happen.

Syngenta is an agribusiness giant with 28,000 employees in about 90 countries which had $13.4 billion in sales last year largely from seeds, insecticides, herbicides and fungicides. The company’s presence in Hawaii stretches back nearly 50 years.

The company was formed in 2000 by Novartis and AstraZeneca combining and spinning off their agribusiness units. The company’s roots in Hawaii date to the late 1960s through predecessors including Novartis and Northrup King on Kauai. Expansion to Oahu happened in 2004 when Syngenta acquired Garst Seed Co. operations in Kunia.

Research and production of mainly corn seed is regarded as the most valuable “crop” in the state, worth $151 million last season based on a U.S. Department of Agriculture estimate that tallies spending by the industry.

Syngenta and four other companies — BASF, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont Pioneer and Monsanto — operate 10 seed farms on Oahu, Maui, Molokai and Kauai.

The companies produce plants with desired traits, using traditional breeding and genetic modification, and send the seeds to the mainland for mass reproduction and sale to farmers.

Proponents of the industry say it provides good jobs, contributes to food production and keeps a lot of land in farming and away from the threat of urban development. However, some people oppose the industry’s use of pesticides and regard altering plant traits through biotechnology as a threat to the ecosystem if traits spread to other plants.

Such opposition has led to efforts to change or ban seed company operations in Hawaii in recent years, and spawned litigation over restrictions imposed by some counties.

Over the last few years, Syngenta and other seed companies have battled opponents at County Council hearings and the state Legislature. After Kauai, Maui and Hawaii counties passed restrictive laws in 2013 and 2014, the seed firms sued and prevailed in federal court to block the laws on grounds that state and federal authorities — not counties — regulate agricultural crops and pesticides.

The counties, environmental groups and opponents of genetically modified crops appealed the cases to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which in June heard arguments. No decision has been rendered yet.