Origin Agritech Ltd. a Beijing based technology-focused supplier of crop seed and agri-biotech research in China, has announced that it has had approved four new varieties of seed.
These are three new corn hybrid varieties and a new GM cotton variety for distribution during the 2009 sales season in five provinces throughout China. The Company has a total of 68 corn seeds and 15 cotton seeds approved for sale in China.
The new corn seed products include Ao Nuo 1, Yu Ao 6, and Li Yu 16. Ao Nuo 1 is approved for provincial distribution in Beijing and Liaoning. Yu Ao 6 is approved for provincial distribution in Inner Mongolia, and Li Yu 16 is approved for distribution in Hubei province.
Ao Mian 6 is a genetically modified cotton seed approved for distribution in Henan province.
The corn seed approval process is reported to be one of the most rigorous regulatory requirements in all of China. The approval requires the applicant to undergo two growing seasons of monitored growth in at least five different locations in the region. Seeds submitted for testing are planted together with control seeds, which are typically the most popular seeds in the testing regions. Only seeds that have an increased yield of 5-8% or higher versus the control seeds are cleared to proceed to the second year of testing.
Origin develops, grows, processes, and markets crop seeds to farmers throughout China and parts of Southeast Asia via a network of approximately 3,800 first-level distributors and 6,500 second-level distributors. The hybrid seed industry is estimated at USD2 billion and this is expected to double by 2010.