In its media release (7th October 2014), the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) expressed deep concerns over the acquisitions by multinational seed companies of large parts of SeedCo, one of Africa’s largest home-grown seed companies, operating in 15 countries across the continent with significant market shares in Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. According to the media release, the acquisitions follow close on the heels of Swiss biotech giant Syngenta’s take-over in 2013 of Zambian seed company MRI Seed, whose maize germplasm collection was said at the time to be amongst Africa’s most comprehensive and diverse. Taken together, this means that three of the world’s largest biotechnology companies, Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta, all now have a significant foothold on the continent, the media release further states.
