New York Stock Exchange-listed agricultural company Corteva Agriscience has exited Kenya for Zambia. The firm has dumped Nairobi for its seed production business and instead opted for Lusaka, barely five months after setting base in Kenya.
According to a statement that was released last week, Corteva Agriscience announced that Zambia will be its chosen seed production hub for the region. This will see the company set its base for supplying seed to countries like Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda Ethiopia and Zimbabwe in Zambia, further dealing a blow to Kenya as a the hub of foreign businesses.
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“Clearly Zambia is on the move, and a very, very important site for Corteva Agriscience. For us, quality seed and making sure farmers get the best product is most important, and this site is testament to that. We are in the business of enriching the lives of our farmers,” the firm’s president for Africa and Middle East Prabdeep Bajwa said in a statement.
Last September, the company officially launched its regional operations in Kenya as it continued to expand its market reach and contribute to growth of the region’s agriculture sector.
Corteva was born out of the merger between International chemical manufacturer Dow Chemical Company and DuPont to form DowDuPont which created three separate publicly traded companies in agriculture, materials science and specialty products involved in productive, science-based innovation to meet the needs of customers and help solve global challenges.
In Africa and Middle East, Corteva Agriscience brings together DuPont Crop Protection, DuPont Pioneer, PANNAR and Dow AgroSciences to create a market shaping, standalone agriculture company with leading positions in seed technologies, crop protection and digital agriculture.
Corteva also entered into partnerships with several companies and institutions across Africa including, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in Ethiopia, Flour Mills of Nigeria and Zimbabwe’s valley seeds all aimed at bolstering growth in the agriculture sector.
