S&W Seed Company buys half interest in 182 acres in Calif.

S&W Seed Company announced that it acquired a one-half interest in an additional 182 acres of producing farmland in Calipatria, Calif., located in the Imperial Valley. The 182 acres are adjacent to 1,880 acres of farmland that S&W partly purchased and partly leased in July 2012. The newly acquired farmland will be used to expand S&W's production of alfalfa seed.

Mark Grewal, chief executive officer of S&W Seed Company, commented, "Due to the success of our sales and marketing efforts in bringing awareness to the economic advantages of utilizing S&W's proprietary varieties, the company has been making concerted efforts to expand its production. This transaction fits squarely into our strategic objectives to expand production via opportunistic purchasing or leasing of farmland that can be dedicated to growing our proprietary varieties. We believe this gives us a long-term competitive advantage." 

Grewal continued, "Our recent acquisition of Imperial Valley Seeds, as well as the purchase and lease of 1,880 acres in 2012, gives S&W a solid foothold in the Imperial Valley. This is strategically important because of the area's ban on GMO alfalfa, which offers an extra assurance to our customers in Middle Eastern and African countries where GMO seed can't be imported. Also, alfalfa seed grown in the hot Imperial Valley climate is harvested one or two months earlier than other areas in California. Ideally, this means we can ship to the Middle East and North Africa just in time for planting, thereby helping S&W and our customers manage inventory."

The purchase was made by S&W and Coast Imperial Partners as tenants-in-common. S&W paid $819,566, which represented 50% of the total purchase price for the land. The transaction closed on Dec. 31, 2012.

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