Beijing, 4 February 2016 – On the announcement of ChemChina to takeover the pesticide and seed company Syngenta, Philippe Schenkel, Ecological Farming Campaigner at Greenpeace Switzerland, said:“The proposed takeover of Syngenta by ChemChina – a state owned Fortune 500 company – is another indication that Big Agribusiness is in turmoil. The continuing concentration of corporate power in the agricultural sector will lead to increased dependencies of farmers on just a handful of global players. The current system of industrial agriculture, promoted by big corporations puts profit over people and undermines the farmers’ freedom to choose what they grow and how.”
Zhang Jing, Food and Agriculture Campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia Beijing Office, said: “The industrial agricultural system is based on large-scale monocultures, GE-crops and giant inputs of fertilisers and pesticides. It leads to severe environmental damage and degradation all over the world, putting our food diversity and food security at risk.”
Greenpeace together with consumers and farmers demand an increase in ecological farming solutions, which guarantee both a good livelihood for farmers and rural communities and healthy nutritious food without threatening environment or wildlife.
Background information on ChemChina:
China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina) is a state-owned enterprise established by reorganising the subsidiary companies under the former Ministry of the Chemical Industry. ChemChina is ranked 265th on the “Fortune Global 500.” With revenues of US$45 billion in 2015, ChemChina is China’s largest chemical company. It has more than 140,000 employees with 48,000 outside China. ChemChina is active in basic and special chemicals, oil processing, agrochemicals, tyre & rubber products and chemical equipment.
Syngenta is not the first enterprise that ChemChina takes over. During recent years, ChemChina has taken over several companies of different industries such as the tyre giant Pirelli and Krauss-Maffei-Wegmann. ChemChina said that their aim is to accelerate the development of Syngenta and building new markets and opportunities, obviously focussing on Asia, especially China.