MANILA, Philippines - SL Agritech Corp. is set to export sometime this year super hybrid rice seeds to Vietnam as part of its effort to accelerate growth in its rice production.

Henry Lim, SL Agritech chairman and CEO, sealed an agreement the other week with Dai Thanh Agritech Seed Co. whereby SL Agritech will initially ship sometime this year, 60 tons of SL-8H super hybrid rice seeds to the Vietnam agricultural firm.

“Under our agreement, Dai Thanh Agritech Seed Co., a firm engaged in crop seed trading and distribution, will distribute our hybrid seeds to Vietnam. Our initial shipment to that company will be 60 tons and this will be made sometime this year. The second shipment of 300 tons will be next year and a year after, we will ship 500 tons until they reach 2,000 tons,” Lim said.

It will be recalled that in the last two years, SL Agritech has made several shipments of its SL-8H super hybrid rice seeds to Indonesia and Bangladesh, “the Philippines thus becoming the third country next to China and India to export hybrid rice seeds to other countries,” Lim said.

He said it was more than 29 years ago when the Philippines first exported rice seeds to other countries. “Now, we rank number three after China and India as hybrid rice seeds exporter,” he said, adding that he considers this “as a big achievement not only for SL Agritech Corp. but for our country as well.”

Lim at the same time expressed optimism that “in the foreseeable future, our country will become self-sufficient in rice as more and more farmers are planting the high-yielding hybrid rice variety.

“It has been proven that farmers planting hybrid seeds will not only double or triple their harvest but will also dramatically increase their income compared to their production when they plant the traditional inbred seeds variety which is only about 75 to 80 cavans per hectare,” he said, as he urged the massive propagation of hybrid rice as part of the government’s efforts to achieve self-sufficiency of the cereal.