COFCO to sell Nidera seeds unit to Syngenta

International seeds and chemicals Syngenta is to buy COFCO International’s Nidera Seeds unit, statements from both firms confirmed Monday.

Divestment of the seeds division will allow COFCO to focus on its core business of trade and procurement, with COFCO’s ownership of the Latin American seeds business the result of an earlier buyout of Nidera.

COFCO completed the protracted takeover of the Dutch trade house and agricultural manufacture earlier this year, merging its activities with those of another acquisition, Noble Agriculture, to make the firm a major player in the global agriculture trade.

COFCO’s Nidera acquisition has been fraught with difficulty, however, after investigations revealed significant losses from its biofuels business caused by a rogue trader and accounting discrepancies at its Latin American operations.

The wider agriculture space has seen several high-profile mergers and acquisitions over the past three years, with the industry going through a period of consolidation as company’s look to take advantage of the economies of scale that integrated supply chains bring in an era of shrinking margins and limited price volatility.

Indeed, Syngenta was itself purchased earlier this year by China’s state-owned chemicals manufacturer ChemChina in a deal valued at $43 billion.