Net Loss Narrows by 44% Year-Over-Year, Driven by 44% Reduction in Operating Expenses

BEIJING, May 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Origin Agritech Ltd. (NASDAQ: SEED) (the "Company" or "Origin"), a leading Chinese agricultural technology company, today announced its unaudited financial results for the six months ended March 31, 2026.

Business Accomplishments and Highlights for the Six Months Ended March 31, 2026, and to date:

Strategic Partnerships and Commercialization:

• In March 2026, Origin formally launched the "Aoyun 2026" New Variety Promotion Program at its 2026 Annual Marketing Conference in Changsha, Hunan Province. The integrated commercial campaign is designed to accelerate market adoption of Origin's latest portfolio of high-performing seed products — including Jingke 317, Jinqiao 8, Xundan 203, and Aoyu 728 — across all of China's principal corn-producing regions. As part of the launch, CEO Weibin Yan personally signed performance accountability contracts for FY2026 and FY2027 with the Company's subsidiary general managers. Six regional teams concurrently finalized spring planting season deployment plans across China's key corn-growing markets.
• In November 2025, Origin executed a patent license agreement with Shunfeng BioTech, bringing the Cas-SF01 gene-editing nuclease into the Company's biotechnology toolkit. The license materially strengthens Origin's position in next-generation corn trait development by pairing Cas-SF01 as a precision-editing instrument with the Company's proprietary Hi3 induction-line delivery platform, advancing the commercialization pathway for stacked-trait hybrids.
• The Company's Origin Marker Biological Breeding Service Consortium, established in October 2024 with China Golden Marker Biotechnology Co., Ltd., continued to expand its cooperative network during the reporting period, advancing the licensing and commercialization pathway for Origin's GMO insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant traits and gene-editing technologies.
• Origin has deepened collaborations with top corn breeders across different ecological zones, conducting joint crossing using core germplasm and leveraging the Company's nationwide testing network. Over 10,000 new corn combinations have been introduced or jointly assembled this year. A project led by Professors Jiansheng Li and Feng Tian of China Agricultural University is developing new germplasm from the Suwan population. Origin has also introduced the highly competitive variety Zhengtai 889 (co-developed with Professor Jihua Tang of Henan Agricultural University and Mr. Zhou Qingwei of Henan Sutai), which ranked first in national trials, and the CAU-bred variety Zhongnongda 8538, which performed strongly in Northwest China.

Biotechnology Advancements:

• During the 2025 winter season in South China, the Company's breeding work produced over 30,000 new corn test-cross combinations, including promising ones utilizing breakthrough germplasm such as QD14 for the Huang-Huai-Hai summer corn region. Using the Hi3 gene-editing technology, Origin has been improving main varieties for different ecological zones, particularly for plant density requirements. Leveraging two leaf-angle reduction genes exclusively licensed from China Agricultural University, precision "smart plant type" improvements have been completed on main varieties, including Yufeng 303 and T391, and the Company is accelerating the commercial conversion of these achievements.
• The Company continues to advance the commercialization of its BBL2-2 transgenic maize program, which received a GMO safety certificate from China's Ministry of Agriculture in May 2024. BBL2-2 incorporates dual insect-resistance genes (Cry1Ab and Cry3Bb) and a glyphosate-tolerance gene (Cp4-epsps), providing the stacked-trait foundation for Origin's next generation of biotechnology hybrids.
• Origin's national R&D platform now houses more than 200,000 corn germplasm resources. It supports in-house AI-assisted breeding programs that operate across genomic selection, image-based phenotyping, and donor-recipient pairing for the gene-editing pipeline, materially shortening the Company's breeding cycle and trait validation timeline.

Regulatory Approvals and Licensing:

• In October 2025, the Beijing Tongzhou District Market Supervision Administration approved the inclusion of GMO crop seed production within Beijing Origin Seed Limited's business scope, enabling the Company's principal operating entity to participate directly in China's expanding GMO seed sector.
• During the reporting period, Beijing Origin Seed Limited received its formal crop seed production and operation license from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Combined with the license already held by the Company's subsidiary in Hainan, Origin now holds two crop seed production and operation licenses in China, significantly expanding its regional footprint and the geographies in which it can directly produce and commercialize seed.

Corporate Strategy and Market Expansion:

• In November 2025, the Company held a research and development work conference that further clarified its strategic direction focused on variety aggregation, variety development, and commercialization of biotechnologies, emphasizing the philosophy of "be first or be unique," expanding breeding approaches, strengthening collaborations with top breeders and institutions, and expanding testing scales, with good progress achieved to date.
• In October 2025, Origin re-entered the Northeast China market — one of the country's primary corn-producing regions — with a Variety Showcase and Technology Seminar held in Changchun, Jilin Province. The event drew more than 200 dealer partners and industry participants and resulted in formal regional commercial commitments. The Northeast initiative is supported by the Company's expanded national organization, which grew from 63 to 106 professionals during fiscal year 2025.
• In March 2026, the Company appointed Dr. Jian Zhang as an independent director of the Board. Dr. Zhang is a globally recognized authority in crop biotechnology with more than two decades of senior leadership experience at DuPont Pioneer, Syngenta, and BASF. Concurrently, Dr. Z. James Chen rejoined the Company as Chief Financial Officer. Dr. Chen previously served as Origin's Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer in two prior tenures, bringing institutional continuity and deep capital markets expertise to the executive team at a critical point in the Company's Recovery phase.

First Half Fiscal Year 2026 Financial Results:

Revenues for the six months ended March 31, 2026, were RMB 49.2 million (US$7.1 million), a decrease of 31.9% from RMB 72.3 million for the six months ended March 31, 2025. The decrease was primarily due to the strategic transition in the Company's product portfolio, as we're focusing more on sales of new corn seed products and reducing external seed tolling services.

Cost of revenues for the first half of fiscal 2026 was RMB 43.7 million (US$6.3 million), compared to RMB 64.2 million for the same period in 2025.

Gross profit for the six months ended March 31, 2026, was RMB 5.5 million (US$0.8 million), compared to RMB 8.1 million for the first half of fiscal 2025. Gross margin was 11.2%, consistent with the 11.2% reported in the prior-year period.

Total operating expenses for the first half of fiscal 2026 were RMB 18.4 million (US$2.7 million), a 43.9% decrease from RMB 32.8 million in the same period a year ago.

• Selling and marketing expenses were RMB 5.1 million (US$0.7 million), compared to RMB 2.6 million in the prior year, reflecting increased investment in the "Aoyun 2026" commercialization program and the expanded sales force.
• General and administrative expenses decreased by 69.8% to RMB 7.6 million (US$1.1 million), down from RMB 25.0 million in the first half of fiscal 2025, demonstrating the success of the Company's cost-control initiatives.
• Research and development expenses were RMB 5.7 million (US$0.8 million), an 11.1% increase from RMB 5.2 million in the prior year, as the Company continued to invest in its proprietary breeding and biotechnology pipeline.

Operating loss for the first half of fiscal 2026 was RMB 12.9 million (US$1.9 million), a reduction of 47.8% compared to an operating loss of RMB 24.7 million for the first half of fiscal 2025.

Net loss attributable to Origin Agritech Limited for the six months ended March 31, 2026, was RMB 14.4 million (US$2.1 million), compared to a net loss of RMB 25.6 million for the same period a year ago.

Basic and diluted net loss per share for the first half of fiscal 2026 was RMB 1.21 (US$0.17), compared to a net loss per share of RMB 3.55 in the first half of fiscal 2025.

Balance Sheet and Liquidity

As of March 31, 2026, the Company had cash and cash equivalents of RMB 13.4 million (US$1.9 million), compared to RMB 15.9 million as of September 30, 2025. Total current assets were RMB 60.8 million (US$8.8 million), and total assets were RMB 92.6 million (US$13.4 million).

Total current liabilities were RMB 155.6 million (US$22.5 million), and total liabilities were RMB 168.1 million (US$24.3 million) as of March 31, 2026. Short-term borrowings were RMB 9.5 million (US$1.4 million).

Note: The translation of Renminbi (RMB) into U.S. dollars (US$) is based on the exchange rate of RMB 6.9194 to US$1.00 as of March 31, 2026.

Management Commentary

Mr. Weibin Yan, Chief Executive Officer of Origin Agritech, commented, "Our first-half results demonstrate clear progress in our strategic turnaround. We have transferred our sales structure to our new product portfolio to align with market development, significantly reducing our operating loss and cutting general and administrative expenses by nearly 70%. This financial discipline is the direct result of the accountability structures we put in place over the past year. While top-line revenue reflects our proactive restructuring of operations — phasing out older businesses while pushing new product sales — our gross margins remained stable, and our cash position is solid."

"In the previous quarter, our new variety promotion count and sales volume increased. We are now executing the second phase of our strategic plan. With the launch of our 'Aoyun 2026' promotion program, we are aggressively pushing our next-generation seed varieties into the market. We have expanded both our R&D product lines and our sales force, improved our R&D network, re-entered the critical Northeast corn corridor, and secured the necessary production licenses. Furthermore, the recent appointments of Dr. Jian Zhang to our Board and the return of Dr. James Chen as CFO give us an executive team with stronger technical and capital markets expertise. We are positioned to convert our rebuilt infrastructure into tangible commercial results."

Conference Call & Audio Webcast

Origin will host a conference call on Friday, May 22, at 8 a.m. ET with the investment community to discuss the Company's financial results and provide a business update. The conference call will be led by Mr. Weibin Yan, Chief Executive Officer, and Dr. Z. James Chen, Chief Financial Officer, who will be available to answer questions.

To access the call by phone, please call 1-800-267-6316 (United States) or 1-203-518-9783 (International) using the conference ID: ORIGIN.

To avoid delays, we encourage participants to dial into the conference call 15 minutes before the scheduled start time. The webcast can be accessed at the following link: https://viavid.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1764036&tp_key=4b33d6defb.

A webcast replay will be available for two weeks.

About Origin Agritech Limited

Origin Agritech Limited, founded in 1997 and headquartered at the Origin R&D Center in Songzhuang, Tongzhou, Beijing, is a leading Chinese agricultural technology company. In crop seed biotechnologies, Origin Agritech's phytase corn was the first transgenic corn to receive the Bio-Safety Certificate from China's Ministry of Agriculture. Over the years, Origin has established a robust biotechnology seed pipeline, including products with glyphosate tolerance and pest resistance (Bt) traits. For further information, please visit the Company's website at originagritech.com. The Company also maintains an X account to update investors on Company and industry developments, available at https://x.com/origin_agritech.

For more information, please contact:

Origin Agritech Limited Contact:
Kate Lang (Mandarin/English)
Director of Investor Relations
Phone: +86 186-1839-3368
Email: [email protected]

Investor Relations Contact:
Matthew Abenante, IRC
President
Strategic Investor Relations, LLC
Tel: 347-947-2093
Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE Origin Agritech Limited