November 3, 2000

AgriPro to market
TAMU wheat varieties

Texas A&M University has signed a licensing agreement with AgriPro Wheat, a business unit of Adventa USA, to market Texas A&M winter wheat and triticale varieties.

The licensing arrangement with AgriPro was initially proposed by the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, which a spokesperson said is seeking private business partners to foster sustainability and growth of its research program and to increase returns from its crop breeding efforts.

Frank Gilstrap, associate director of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, said that the partnership brings key advantages to Texas A&M. Among those advantages are:

•Greater commercial capability to market "TAM" varieties.

•A way to augment efforts to maintain seed certification standards, and enforce intellectual property rights in Texas and other states.

•A strong system for producing sufficient seed of licensed varieties to effectively meet market demand.

•A means of monitoring and auditing seed sales and usage, and conducting national and regional evaluation and performance tests of licensed varieties to identify and promote varietal adoption.

•Access to new technologies.

According to David Worrall, AgriPro Wheat breeder and co-manager of the company, the TAM varieties will be marketed in the same way AgriPro Wheat varieties have been marketed for 20 years. It will include, however, a royalty stream that TAM will share in.

Both Gilstrap and Worrall say they believe the partnership will benefit Texas crop producers, resulting in high quality seed adapted to Texas environments.

"Buyers of Texas wheat will have a greater ability to know seed origin and its characteristics, which will benefit quality awareness of wheat grown in the state," Gilstrap said.

TAM varieties sold through AgriPro will be priced similar to AgriPro varieties currently marketed in Texas. Worrall points out that Texas A&M is under no obligation to market its varieties exclusively through AgriPro. As well, AgriPro is under no obligation to market Texas A&M varieties.

"This is simply a marketing arrangement," Worrall said. "We will take their finished products, and market them."