Agribusiness giant Syngenta announced Tuesday that it will expand its Research Triangle Park presence and create 150 new research and development jobs in the park by 2018.
The Basel, Switzerland-based company, which currently employs 1,130 in North Carolina, will invest $94 million to expand its Syngenta Innovation Center, adding 200,000 square feet in laboratory and office space.
The project will expand its crop protection and seed development operations, allowing it to deliver healthier and more abundant plant varieties.
Research at the new facility will focus on environmental stresses and how a plant uses nutrients more efficiently, as well innovations in corn, soybean, cereal, rice, vegetable and sugar cane research. In recent years, the company’s RTP operations have helped launch a new breed of corn that resists the destructive corn rootworm beetle and another designed to withstand drought. “We’ll be looking at all the challenges farmers face, what are the things consumers are interested in, and continue to try to explore,” Goldsmith said.
In May, Syngenta opened a 136,000-square-foot, $72 million greenhouse on its RTP campus that can simulate the growing conditions of any climate in the world.
Construction on the new RTP facility will begin later this year. It is expected to be completed by 2016.
Syngenta, which has more than 27,000 employees in 90 countries, is the world’s No. 3 purveyor of seeds, behind Monsanto and DuPont. It’s also a leader in crop-protection products such as insecticides and herbicides.
The Basel, Switzerland-based company, which currently employs 1,130 in North Carolina, will invest $94 million to expand its Syngenta Innovation Center, adding 200,000 square feet in laboratory and office space.
The project will expand its crop protection and seed development operations, allowing it to deliver healthier and more abundant plant varieties.
Research at the new facility will focus on environmental stresses and how a plant uses nutrients more efficiently, as well innovations in corn, soybean, cereal, rice, vegetable and sugar cane research. In recent years, the company’s RTP operations have helped launch a new breed of corn that resists the destructive corn rootworm beetle and another designed to withstand drought. “We’ll be looking at all the challenges farmers face, what are the things consumers are interested in, and continue to try to explore,” Goldsmith said.
In May, Syngenta opened a 136,000-square-foot, $72 million greenhouse on its RTP campus that can simulate the growing conditions of any climate in the world.
Construction on the new RTP facility will begin later this year. It is expected to be completed by 2016.
Syngenta, which has more than 27,000 employees in 90 countries, is the world’s No. 3 purveyor of seeds, behind Monsanto and DuPont. It’s also a leader in crop-protection products such as insecticides and herbicides.
