6 months ago this was a nice PR, wonder what happened to the corn in China?
'Favourable' biotech corn seed data send Ceres shares soaring
By Agrimoney.com - Published 09/01/2015
Ceres' flagging shares rebounded by one-third after the seed group revealed that genetically modified corn it is researching in China had shown a 25% jump in yields, potentially opening up "an exciting area for value creation".
The US-based group - which in November, soon after harvesting field trials of its biotech corn said that results appeared "positive" – said on Friday that many of its plots had achieved a "25% yield advantage" over unnamed alternative varieties planted as controls.
"A second year of field trials demonstrated significant yield advantages," Ceres said, adding that the improvements had been evident in both normal and drought conditions.
The group, which unlike some other seed developers promotes the mixing of its genetically modified traits, said that the best combinations faced "broader field evaluations" next year.
'Critical stage'
The results in what Ceres termed a "critical stage" of the biotech seed development process, offering "greater insight into how traits may perform in an agricultural setting", represented an "exciting area for value creation".
"Double-digit percentage increases in highly bred corn hybrids are urgently needed in a crop where a few percentage point increases are the norm," said Richard Flavell, the Ceres chief scientific advisor.
The group also said it may attempt to licence to other biotech seed groups its iCode technology which enhances the testing of multiple genetically modified traits.
The promising gene combinations flagged up by iCode "may well" enable large increases in yields, "and shape crop biotechnology for years to come," Dr Flavell said.
Shares jump
The results of the corn trials, which were undertaken in China with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, prompted a 33% jump to $0.3195 in Ceres shares in early deals in New York.
The shares stood up 16.8% at $0.2803 in afternoon deals.
Ceres stock last month hit an all-time low of $0.21, well below the high of $18.70 reached in March 2012, soon after the company floated.
