Origin Agritech Ltd. (NASDAQ: SEED) unveiled a Southwest R&D Center in Kaiyang County, Guiyang City, Guizhou Province on Aug. 31, 2026, anchored by two entities established earlier this year: a wholly owned subsidiary and a state-backed joint venture.

The wholly owned unit, Guizhou Origin Biotechnology Co., Ltd., was established in March 2026 with an investment of RMB 10 million. The joint venture, Guiyang Agricultural Investment Origin Modern Seed Industry Co., Ltd., was established in April 2026 with a total investment of RMB 40 million. Origin holds a 25% equity interest in the joint venture, with the remaining stake controlled by Guizhou Modern Seed Industry Group Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the state-owned Guiyang Agricultural Investment Group.

The approximately 8,000-square-meter complex includes a 4,000-square-meter experimental zone, a 600-square-meter molecular testing platform, a 2,000-square-meter tissue culture platform, and four intelligent glass greenhouses totaling more than 15,000 square meters, supported by roughly 160 mu (approximately 26 acres) of field trial land.

Guizhou Origin focuses on molecular design breeding, germplasm resource innovation, haploid engineering breeding, and virus-free sweet potato seedlings. It offers genetic transformation services across 11 crops and operates a doubled haploid breeding platform with an annual capacity of 100,000 lines. The company has engaged professors from China Agricultural University and established a university professor workstation on site.

The joint venture targets corn seed research, production, processing, and sales for southwest China's mountainous terrain, and also covers sweet potato, ginger, and vegetable varieties. It operates through more than 300 distributors covering townships across Guizhou.

"Guizhou Origin gives us the molecular breeding tools to close that gap — we already have more than 10,000 germplasm accessions in field identification this year — and our state-owned partner gives us more than 300 distribution points already in the ground," said Weibin Yan, Chief Executive Officer of Origin Agritech.

The unveiling ceremony was attended by more than 30 experts and officials, including an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a deputy mayor of Guiyang Municipal People's Government.