Syngenta breaks ground on expansion of its North America Seedcare Institute

The Syngenta North America Seedcare Institute in Stanton, Minnesota, recently started a $20 million expansion.

Company leaders, along with Rep. John Kline of Minnesota's Second District, Matthew Wohlman, assistant commissioner of Minnesota Department of Agriculture, and local officials and industry leaders, broke ground for construction of a 38,000-square-foot building that will be nearly five times the size of the present facility.

The new structure will house high-tech laboratories for research and development, treating, plant-ability, dust-off and quality assurance, a scale-up treating area, a treating equipment performance area to simulate real-life experiences for customers, state-of-the-art training facility, a seed warehouse and office and meeting spaces.

The expanded Seedcare Institute will allow Syngenta to accelerate the development of new seed treatment products and technology and meet the increasing demand by farmers and seed companies to protect high-value seeds and seed traits. In addition, it will augment customer education and stewardship.

Syngenta now operates 10 Seedcare Institutes globally, with one more scheduled to open shortly in Singapore. In addition to the construction and capabilities investment, about a half-dozen jobs will be added in Stanton initially and potentially more than a dozen. The expansion is expected to be completed by end of 2016.