Ceres, Inc. (CERE) and Syngenta (SYT) Agree to Collaborate on Market Development of Sweet Sorghum for Ethanol Production

Ceres, an energy crop company, announced today that its Brazilian subsidiary Ceres Sementes do Brazil Ltda. has entered into a sweet sorghum market development agreement with Syngenta. Under the agreement, the companies will work together to facilitate the introduction of sweet sorghum as a viable source of fermentable sugars at the 400 or more ethanol mills in Brazil.

Sweet sorghum is a resilient crop that is capable of extending the ethanol production season by up to 60 days in Brazil. It can grow on fallow sugarcane land and can be processed using the same equipment. Sweet sorghum grows in only 90 to 120 days, meaning it requires less water and other inputs than sugarcane. During the last growing season, over 3,000 hectares were sewn with sweet sorghum by Brazilian mills, an area roughly equivalent to the size of nine New York City Central Parks.

The agreement stipulates that Syngenta and Ceres will collaborate on small-scale trials in addition to larger demonstration-scale field evaluations with mills this season. Syngenta will provide its considerable agronomy resources to evaluate its portfolio of crop protection products alongside Ceres hybrids, and Ceres will provide both seed and research support. Both companies will coordinate outreach to ethanol mills and develop industry-training programs.

“By working together with Syngenta, we believe we can advance the development of sweet sorghum crop management practices and provide a more complete package of advanced hybrids and leading crop protection products to our mutual customers,” said Michael Stephenson, Vice President of Operations for Ceres.

“We are committed to helping our customers to optimize their operations throughout the season. The cultivation of sweet sorghum enables growers to use land and water resources more efficiently. In collaboration with Ceres, we aim to develop this opportunity by deploying our crop protection portfolio to achieve consistent yield improvement,” said Daniel Bachner, Syngenta’s Global Head of Sugarcane.
For more information on Ceres, visit www.ceres.net

For more information on Syngenta, visit www.syngenta.com

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