RAGT, a French plant-breeding group with 27 research centres worldwide, has reached a binding agreement to acquire Syngenta’s 2-row spring and winter malting barley seeds business, marking one of the most significant restructuring moves in Europe’s barley breeding sector in recent years, as announced through a ragt-seeds.com press release. Closing is expected by 30 December 2025, pending routine employee consultations and approval procedures.
The transaction includes the long-established Market Stainton breeding centre in Lincolnshire, a facility that has served as a core hub for 2-row barley development since the late 1970s. Year-round crossing of spring and winter lines, extensive field screening, seed multiplication and thousands of micromalt quality tests are carried out at the site. Approximately ten employees dedicated to the malting barley programme will transfer to RAGT. The acquisition also includes intellectual property, registrations and other related intangible assets.
As Damien Robert, Managing Director of RAGT Semences, explained, the acquisition strengthens the company’s position in key European markets and fits the long-term RAGT 2030 strategy. He emphasised clear synergies within RAGT’s existing portfolio, covering nearly all major European arable crops, and considerable potential to accelerate technology development that will benefit growers across Europe. RAGT already had its own significant barley-breeding programmes long before acquiring Syngenta’s malting-barley unit, and several of its varieties became well known across Europe, especially in feed barley and, to a lesser extent, in malting barley.
From Syngenta’s perspective, Robert Hiles, Seeds Field Crops Marketing & Portfolio Management Head at Syngenta Europe, highlighted that the transfer of the malting barley business to an organisation with strong cereal breeding capabilities ensures continued progress for the germplasm and a stable future for the supply chain. Both companies stressed their confidence in a smooth handover and in maintaining high-quality service.
Industry observers interpret the sale as part of a broader portfolio realignment at Syngenta. According to market analysts, the company intends to concentrate more strongly on scalable, high-growth segments such as hybrid cereals while reducing its engagement in areas that are no longer considered strategically central. Several commentators also note that the brewing sector, once regarded as an essential innovation driver within agricultural supply chains, is today viewed as less strategically important for major agrochemical and seed companies than in previous decades, making divestments of this kind increasingly plausible.
A key element of the transition is the strong heritage of Syngenta’s breeding work. Over the past decades, the company developed some of the most influential 2-row malting barley varieties in Europe. These include the widely adopted Laureate, the premium-quality SY Tungsten, the performance-oriented SY Splendor, the established winter varieties SY Venture and Chronicle, as well as earlier foundational types such as Wintmalt. Together, these varieties have shaped the brewing and distilling industries across the UK and Europe and remain essential components of the malting barley supply chain.
Given the central role of malting barley in the production of beer and spirits, the agreement is expected to reinforce long-term variety development and support a competitive, innovation-driven breeding landscape. Over the coming months, RAGT and Syngenta intend to work closely together to guarantee an orderly transition and uninterrupted support for farmers, maltsters, brewers and distillers.
