@AGROBiz May/June 2026 | Page 7

FOREIGN NEWS
May-June. 2026 | @ AGROBiz

FOREIGN NEWS

07

New hope for crops

ADVANCING PLANT RESISTANCE: The company’ s growing investment in agricultural biotechnology reflects rising global concerns over crop disease and food security.

RISING concerns over crop diseases and sustainable food production continue to drive investment into agricultural biotechnology, with UK-based Resurrect Bio securing € 8.8 million( US $ 10.3 million) in Series A funding to expand its diseaseresistant crop technologies.

The London-headquartered startup said the oversubscribed funding round was led by Corteva through its Corteva Catalyst platform, alongside participation from several investors including Calculus Capital, Pymwymic, UKI2S, SynBioVen and AgFunder.
The latest investment raised the company’ s total funding to approximately US $ 12.4 million since its founding in 2022.
Originally spun out from The Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich, Resurrect Bio focuses on developing crop protection technologies that strengthen natural plant immunity against diseases, reducing reliance on chemical treatments.
Its research combines artificial intelligence, plant science and functional biology to identify and reactivate resistance traits already present within crop genetics.
Chief Executive Officer Cian Duggan said the company was now
looking to deepen collaboration with seed companies and plant breeders.
“ The strength of this raise reflects growing conviction in what we’ re building: a scalable, AI-driven platform for resurrecting disease resistance in the world’ s most important crops. It’ s also a validation of what’ s possible when you combine the UK’ s world-class plant science base with commercial ambition to translate it into real-world impact.
“ We’ re expanding our team, deepening our platforms, and actively seeking joint development agreements with seed companies and breeders who want to bring durable resistance traits to farmers,” he said.
The company plans to channel the funding into scaling its FloraFold AI discovery platform and expanding research to accelerate the development of disease-resistant crop varieties.
Investment Director at Calculus Capital, Elizabeth Klein-Edmonds, said disease pressure remained a major challenge for global agriculture.
“ Crop disease remains a major and often overlooked challenge in global agriculture. Resurrect Bio’ s innovative gene-editing platform, which restores native disease-resistance genes in crops, offers a promising solution by reducing dependence on chemicals and boosting yields,” she explained.
Earlier in Mar 2026, the company announced a collaboration with Corteva Agriscience to develop disease resistance in corn, highlighting growing industry interest in biotechnology-driven crop resilience solutions.

Boost for Cambodia’ s cassava industry

CAMBODIA is continuing efforts to strengthen its value-added agriculture sector by developing a new cassava processing plant in Kampong Speu province.
The project, undertaken by Guanshen Shengda Agriculture Industry Co., Ltd., carries an investment value of approximately US $ 20 million and is expected to enhance domestic processing capabilities while supporting export growth and market access for cassava farmers.
At the groundbreaking ceremony, Son Senghout said Cambodia was moving steadily towards greater downstream processing in the cassava industry, rather than relying mainly on raw commodity exports.
“ The cassava sector is shifting from raw commodity exports towards domestic processing, enabling Cambodia to capture higher value within the country,” he said.
According to officials, Cambodia produced around 13.89 million tonnes of cassava in 2023, making the sector an important contributor to the country’ s agro-industrial development agenda.
The country’ s cassava processing industry has also expanded rapidly in recent years, with the number of factories increasing from seven in 2020 to 16 currently.
Authorities said the growth reflected rising private sector interest in agro-processing and industrial transformation initiatives linked to agriculture.
Cambodia has additionally introduced several product and quality standards for the cassava industry, covering products such as tapioca flour, tapioca starch and sweet cassava, as well as standards related to hydrocyanic acid( HCN) control to meet market and safety requirements.
Once completed, the new facility is expected to generate annual sales of around US $ 90 million.
BREAKING GROUND: Cambodia’ s cassava processing industry has expanded rapidly in recent years as the country pushes for greater agroindustrial development.
The plant will be capable of producing 100,000 tonnes of refined cassava starch, 100,000 tonnes of dried cassava chips and 30,000 tonnes of feed-grade residue each year.
Industry observers said the investment highlighted growing regional interest in expanding value-added agricultural processing as countries seek to strengthen food manufacturing capacity and increase export competitiveness.- @ AGROBiz