SANW Company Profile

Founded in 1980 and headquartered in the Central Valley of California, we are a global agricultural company. Grounded in our historical expertise and, what we believe is our present leading position in the breeding, production and sale of alfalfa seed, we continue to build towards our goal of being recognized as the worlds preferred proprietary forage and specialty crop seed company. In addition to our primary activities in alfalfa seed, we have recently expanded our product portfolio by adding hybrid sorghum and sunflower seed germplasm, which complement our alfalfa seed offerings by allowing us to leverage our infrastructure, research and development expertise and our distribution channels. We believe that such diversification will allow us to enter new markets with historically higher margins.

Our alfalfa seed is produced under contract with growers in the Western United States, Canada and Australia, and we sell our alfalfa seed varieties in more than 30 countries across the globe. Historically, we have been recognized as the leading producer of non-dormant alfalfa seed varieties that have been bred for warm climates and high-yields, including varieties that can thrive in poor, saline soils. Our December 2014 acquisition of certain alfalfa research and production facility and conventional (non-GMO) alfalfa germplasm assets of DuPont Pioneer, a wholly-owned subsidiary of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, has provided us with the opportunity to become a leading producer of dormant, high yield alfalfa seed varieties, which are the varieties suitable for cold weather conditions. We have licensing agreements with Forage Genetics International, LLC, a subsidiary of Land O Lakes, Inc. ("FGI") to produce, breed and eventually sell Roundup Ready® alfalfa seed varieties. As a result, our alfalfa seed business now encompasses the production, breeding and sale of non-dormant and dormant conventional varieties and the potential for future production and sale of GMO (genetically modified organism) varieties.

Since our initial public offering in fiscal 2010, we have expanded certain pre-existing business initiatives and added new ones, including:

diversifying our production geographically by expanding from solely producing alfalfa seed in the San Joaquin Valley of California to initially adding production capability in the Imperial Valley of California, then expanding into Australia (primarily South Australia) and, most recently, adding production in other western states and Canada;
expanding from solely offering non-dormant varieties to now having a full range of both dormant and non-dormant alfalfa seed varieties;
teaming with FGI to develop GMO alfalfa seeds;

expanding the depth and breadth of our research and development capabilities in order to develop new varieties of both dormant and non-dormant alfalfa seed with traits sought after by our existing and future customers;
diversifying into complementary proprietary crops by acquiring the assets of a Queensland, Australia company specializing in breeding and licensing of hybrid sorghum and sunflower seed germplasm;

expanding our distribution channels and customer base, initially through the acquisition of the customer list of our then-largest international customer in the Middle East in July 2011, and thereafter, through certain strategic acquisitions;

expanding our sales geographically both through the expansion of our product offerings to have product needed in regions we historically did not cover and through an expansion of our sales and marketing efforts generally; and

implementing a stevia breeding program to develop new stevia varieties that incorporate the most desirable characteristics of this all-natural, zero calorie sweetener.
We have accomplished these expansion initiatives through a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions, foremost among them:

the acquisition in July 2011 of certain intangible assets, including the customer information, related to the field seed and small grain business from Genetics International, Inc., which had previously operated in the Middle East and North Africa ("MENA"), and which began our transition into selling directly to MENA distributors;
the acquisition of Imperial Valley Seeds, Inc. ("IVS") in October 2012, which enabled us to expand production of non-GMO seed into Californias Imperial Valley, thereby ensuring a non-GMO uncontaminated source of seed due to the prohibition on growing GMO crops in the Imperial Valley, as well as enabling us to diversify our production areas and distribution channels;

the acquisition of a portfolio of dormant germplasm in August 2012 to launch our entry into the dormant market;
the acquisition of the leading local producer of non-dormant alfalfa seed in South Australia, Seed Genetics International Pty Ltd ("SGI") in April 2013, which greatly expanded our production capabilities and geographic diversity;

the acquisition of the alfalfa production and research facility assets and conventional (non-GMO) alfalfa germplasm from DuPont Pioneer in December 2014, thereby substantially expanding upon our initial entrance into the dormant alfalfa seed market that began in 2012 and enabling us to greatly expand our production and research and product development capabilities; and

the acquisition, in May 2016, of the assets and business of SV Genetics Pty Ltd ("SV Genetics"), a private Australian company specializing in the breeding and licensing of proprietary hybrid sorghum and sunflower seed germplasm, which represents our initial effort to diversify our product portfolio beyond alfalfa seed and stevia.

World Agriculture

We believe that one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century will be to expand agricultural production so that it can meet the food and nutritional demands of the worlds growing population. According to World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision, Key Findings and Advance Tables, published by the United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, the world population is estimated to reach 8.5 billion in 2030 and to surpass 9.7 billion by 2050.

Improvements in farm productivity have allowed agriculture to keep pace with growing food demand. Yield-enhancing technologies such as mechanization, hybrid seed and crop protection chemicals have enabled farmers to meet the ever-growing demand for food. Because of decreases in the amount of arable land and shrinking worldwide fresh water resources, further increases in agricultural production must come from improvements in agricultural productivity. We address this need by breeding high-yielding alfalfa seed that is tolerant to inferior, saline soils, thereby allowing farmers to make marginal soils with inferior water quality potentially as productive as superior soils.

Alfalfa Seed Industry

Alfalfa seed is primarily used for growing alfalfa hay, which is grown throughout the world as "forage" for livestock, including dairy and beef cattle, horses and sheep. It is most often harvested as hay, but can also be made into silage, grazed or fed as greenchop to ruminant livestock. The alfalfa industry (and therefore the alfalfa seed industry) is highly dependent on the dairy industry, which is the largest consumer of alfalfa hay. As markets around the world continue to expand to a more westernized diet with high-protein consumption, the demands for alfalfa production around the world continue to increase.

Stevia and the Sweetener Industry

Stevia is a relative newcomer in the estimated over $50 billion global sweetener market. According to a report released by analysts at Technavio on May 26, 2016, this market is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.78% during the period between 2016 and 2020. Although this market is still dominated by sugar, sugar substitutes continue to increase in market share as consumer concern over sugar intake continues to increase. Stevia leaf and its refined products constitute a natural, non-caloric high intensity sweetener, estimated to be 200 to 300 times sweeter than sugar. Its taste has a slower onset and longer duration than that of sugar. It has the advantage of not breaking down with heat, making it more stable for cooking than other sugar alternatives. In the U.S., approximately 70% of all new products formulated with stevia are beverages, with the remainder split between diverse categories, including dairy products and baked goods.

The stevia plant is indigenous to the rain forests of Paraguay and has been used as a sweetener in its raw, unprocessed form for hundreds of years. In recent years, it has been grown commercially in Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, parts of Central America, Thailand, China and the U.S. Currently, the majority of global commercial stevia production occurs in China.

Sorghum Industry

Sorghum comes in two types, forage and grain, and is considered one of the indispensable crops in the world. It has traditionally been used for livestock feed, as well as ethanol, but is gaining increasingly in popularity in food products in the U.S. due to its gluten-free characteristics, as well as its antioxidant, high protein, lower fat, high fiber and non-GMO properties. Consequently, sorghum is becoming a desired substitute for wheat, rye and barley. Additionally, the pet food industry increasingly utilizes sorghum for its nutritional benefits and enhanced digestibility.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (the "USDA") estimates the world sorghum production for 2016/2017 will be approximately 64 million metric tons. Industry experts estimate the 2016 U.S. sorghum crop to encompass between 7 million and 8 million acres with the majority of the worlds sorghum grown in developing countries, primarily in Africa and Asia. Similar to alfalfa, sorghum grows well in poor soil and drought conditions, thanks to its hardiness, market versatility and high-quality seed. Sorghum requires less water to grow than many other crops and is generally used as a replacement for corn and other grains in areas where water is scarce. In Africa, sorghum can be a food staple for human consumption.

Sunflower Industry

Sunflowers have multiple specialty uses including oil, birdseed and human consumption. Our current sunflower seed focus is on the oil market. Sunflower oil is light in taste and appearance and supplies more Vitamin E than any other vegetable oil. It is a combination of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats with low saturated fat levels.