MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Monsanto plant in Cordoba will produce corn seed for 3.5 million hectares

Vaquero, Monsanto Vice-president for Latinamerica: Cordoba will become the second corn belt of Argentina

US agrochemical giant Monsanto will direct most of a 365 million dollars investment in Argentina to a corn seed factory in the central city of Cordoba, the local government there has announced.

Argentina is the world's second largest producer of corn and Monsanto will dedicate 329 million dollars of its overall investment to the factory, the rest going to “two new experimental facilities” in Cordoba and Tucuman province.

The new factory is scheduled to open in 2013 and produce enough seed to sow 3.5 million hectares of fields, an area 1.7 times the size of Wales or almost nine times the size of the US state of Rhode Island.

After the plant is complete, Argentina will boast the two largest factories for seed production in the world, Monsanto reported on Tuesday.

“Cordoba will become Argentina’s second corn belt”, said Pablo Vaquero Monsanto Vice-president for Latinamerica. He also announced that once the project is completed and if the Argentine government increases the blend of fuels with bio-ethanol, five factories have plans to invest in the area.

In addition to corn, Argentina is the world's foremost seller of soybean oil and soybean flour as well as the third largest seller of soybeans.

Tom complement Monsanto’s project Germany’s Claas announced that it will be expanding its farm equipment production in Cordoba. By 2014 the company plans to be manufacturing 800 harvesters annually for the domestic market and for Mercosur.

The new investments mean expanding the current Claaas industrial area from 8.000 to 12.000 square meters plus a paint tunnel, which will demand over 20 million dollars, said Reynaldo Postacchini Vice president of Claas Argentina.