Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin this week ordered Syngenta to divest its ownership of approximately 160 acres in the state. Griffin also imposed a civil penalty of $280,000 for failure to timely report foreign ownership by the Chinese state-owned company.
The land in question is owned by Northrup King Seed Co., a subsidiary of Syngenta Seeds, LLC, which is ultimately owned by China National Chemical Company, known as ChemChina.
Griffin says, “I am ordering ChemChina, as a ‘prohibited foreign-party-controlled business’ to divest this land within two years, or I will commence an enforcement action in Craighead County circuit court.”
Under Arkansas Act 636, state law bars a “prohibited foreign-party-controlled business” from acquiring or holding public or private land in Arkansas either directly or through affiliated parties.
In March 2022, Syngenta Seeds, LLC submitted paperwork to USDA regarding the property under the federal Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act, stating that “ultimately, the foreign person that holds indirectly a significant interest in the person owning the land is from China.”