NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Bayer CropScience today said that it is investing almost $1 billion in capital expenditures in the US between 2013 and 2016 to build up its R&D capabilities and expand its supply of crop protection brands.
The funding is part of a global investment program that Bayer CropScience began last year with total capital expenditures of €2.4 billion ($3.3 billion) between 2013 and 2016.
As part of the new US investments, Bayer CropScience's new integrated R&D site in West Sacramento, Calif., was inaugurated today. The $80 million facility, which will be the headquarters for Bayer CropScience's biologics business, includes a 100,000-square-foot building, a 35,000-square-foot pilot plant to support R&D of biological crop protection products, a 30,000-square-foot vegetable seeds research building, and a 2,000-square-foot greenhouse. The facility has the capacity to house up to 300 employees.
The company said that it has also invested $17 million to expand its Memphis R&D site, bringing the total greenhouse capacity at the facility to 76,000 square feet. Researchers there support Bayer CropScience's global cotton and soybean seed businesses by using molecular breeding and other technologies.
Other investments are targeted at the company's North American and global seeds headquarters in Research Triangle Park, NC; the construction of the Development North America facility dedicated to crop protection and environmental science research; renovations to Bayer CropScience's North American headquarters, scheduled to be completed in 2015; the Cotton Research and Development Laboratory in Lubbock, Texas; and other facilities.