Partnership Formed to Develop and Commercialize Soybean Traits

29 Apr 2015 --- Dow AgroSciences LLC, Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. and Bioceres, S.A. have announced an agreement to develop and commercialize innovative traits in soybeans. The collaboration leverages Dow AgroSciences’ technology, regulatory expertise, and commercial seed capabilities with a leading soybean abiotic stress platform and unique grower relationships in South America represented by Verdeca LLC, a joint venture between Arcadia and Bioceres.

Under the collaboration, the companies will develop new soybean traits using Dow AgroSciences’ EXZACT™ Precision Technology platform to generate soybean trait stacks. These stacks will combine Verdeca’s agronomic performance and product quality traits with Dow AgroSciences’ herbicide-tolerance and insect-resistance traits. The EXZACT Precision Technology platform will facilitate the development of multiple trait stacks with greater degrees of precision and speed-to-market. This collaboration is expected to result in products that provide soybean growers around the world with unique and powerful options to achieve greater yields and improved on-farm economics. Dow AgroSciences has developed the EXZACT Precision Technology platform under an exclusive license and collaboration agreement in plants with Sangamo BioSciences, Inc.

This advancement comes at a time when soybeans are grown on more than 110 million hectares globally, and are the world’s fourth-largest crop. Growth in global population, combined with more people joining the middle-class in countries such as China and India, creates an ever-increasing demand for dietary protein from soybeans.

“Soybean farmers are looking for productivity, and this collaboration holds great promise for the technology we can offer them,” said Tim Hassinger, President and CEO of Dow AgroSciences. “Our own expertise, combined with Arcadia’s leadership position in abiotic stress traits and Bioceres’ strong relationship with large soybean growers, presents a unique opportunity for greater yields.”

“As more traits become available to be integrated into superior seed products, seed companies and trait collaborators face the challenge of deploying these solutions in a time-effective and cost-efficient manner. This collaboration will help us meet this challenge by deploying validated agronomic and crop protection technologies through the EXZACT platform, precisely stacking traits which could speed-up technology integration,” said Federico Trucco, CEO of Bioceres.

“Dow AgroSciences is one of the most respected names in our industry, with a traits pipeline that is second to none,” said Eric Rey, President and CEO of Arcadia Biosciences. “The open-architecture of the Dow AgroSciences/Arcadia/Bioceres collaboration is the first of its kind, and represents the future of efficiently packaging and delivering a complete suite of high value traits to growers.”

Financial details of the collaboration were not disclosed.