Attorney General Tim Griffin announced Tuesday he is ordering a Chinese-state owned company to divest its ownership of farmland in Arkansas.
Syngenta Seeds, LLC, a company that makes genetically modified corn, wheat, soybeans, vegetable and sunflower seeds, owns about 160 acres of farmland in Craighead County through a subsidiary, Northrup King Seed Co., according to the Attorney General’s Office. According to the company’s federal disclosure, a Chinese national “holds indirectly a significant interest” in Syngenta Seeds.
Speaking at the State Capitol, Griffin said the company has about two years to divest its stake in Arkansas land before the state will force a change in ownership using a newly passed state law, Act 636, that prohibits certain “prohibited foreign-party-controlled business” from owning agriculture land in Arkansas. Syngenta Seeds lists its legal addresses in Wilmington, Del. and Basel, Switzerland, according to its federal disclosure, saying “the landowner entity” changed from Switzerland to China in 2017.
Griffin also announced he is imposing a $280,000 civil penalty on the company, which is 25% of the land’s value, for failing to timely disclose its ownership.
“I thank Secretary Wes Ward and the Department of Agriculture for their help in obtaining information to assist my office in determining the ultimate foreign owners of this land in Craighead County,” Griffin said in a news release. “It is this kind of teamwork across state government that will help us all continue to protect the interests of Arkansans for generations to come.”