A news release from Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin confirmed that Syngenta Seeds, LLC, a company under Chinese ownership, has settled the $280,000 civil fine levied against it for contravening Act 1046 of 2021.
Arkansas recently ordered Northrup King Seed Co., a Syngenta subsidiary, to sell 160 acres of farmland in Arkansas. The state also fined the global seed enterprise $280,000 for failing to file papers about its land holdings in a timely manner. The $280,000 fine represented 25% of the fair market value of the property.
“Because Syngenta is foreign-owned … it was required to report its ownership of agricultural land to the Secretary of the Arkansas Department of Agriculture. It failed to timely do so in—filing the report well after the deadline,” Griffin said in the release.
Syngenta must dispose of its Craighead County property within a two-year timeframe as per the stipulations of Act 636 of 2023. This act prohibits prohibited foreign entities from owning agricultural land in Arkansas.
Read the original story: Arkansas Forces Land Sale: Necessary or Knee-Jerk?
