Sydney, Australia
October 26, 2000

The Australian Institute of Export has recognised Technico Pty Limited as a Business Leader with the presentation of a prestigious NSW Premiers Exporter of the Year Award function held at Darling Harbour.

The Institute presented Technico the Supermarket to Asia sponsored "Excellence in Food Marketing to Asia" award in recognition of the company’s commitment to the building of a global supply chain network for its food processing clients.

"These awards highlight our strong commitment to providing supply chain solutions for our global customers in the $185 billion potato industry," said Mr David McDonald, Technico’s Managing Director.

He commented, "In the space of 5 years we have grown our business from an R&D facility based in the Southern Highlands, NSW, to established production centres in the United States, China, India, Thailand and Mexico. All of these centres are utilising our award winning TECHNITUBER® technology and will return export dollars to Australia."

The TECHNITUBER® technology is a rapid multiplication technology, which enables the production of economic volumes of affordable early generation seed potatoes.

The Export Awards continue to be the premier industry event, recognising the commitment and dedication of Australian industry in winning business in often-difficult circumstances. Minister for Trade, Mark Vaile, said "the award recognised Technico’s commitment in commercialising its award winning technology in the international market."

On a recent visit to Technico’s production facility in Kunming China, Mr Vaile said "Technico's positive and aggressive approach in international market development has resulted in an impressive track record in establishing overseas alliances. The company is successfully implementing a global strategy involving many of the largest players in the food processing world. Prospects in new emerging markets in Europe and South America are very exciting."

Mr McDonald added, "Through the large scale production of TECHNITUBER® seed in controlled environment facilities, we have successfully demonstrated the opportunities resulting from a new technology, far superior to existing traditional technologies practiced by the industry."

Technico’s joint venture in India, Chambal Agritech Limited, located in Northern India, recently commenced production and is the fifth TECHNITUBER® seed production facility to be established.

"The facility will produce around 18 million TECHNITUBER® seeds per year, which makes the Indian facility the single largest, miniature seed potato-producing site in the world. The second largest site is the production facility in Kunming, China which produces around 12 million TECHNITUBER® seed per year," commented Mr McDonald.

We are constantly on the move continued Mr McDonald. "We have supply contracts established with global food processors including Frio Lay Inc. the largest snack food processor in the world. Now we are investigating opportunities within Europe to utilise our technology and expand our existing relationship with the world’s largest variety breeder AGRICO, to bring new varieties to world markets, faster.

In 1995 Technico commenced production of TECHNITUBER® seed which is a new method of producing miniature seed potato propagules in significant volumes for a low unit cost with initial international commercialisation occurring in 1995.

Technico's TECHNITUBER® technology overcomes the time barriers and disease challenges faced by traditional seed production schemes by reducing by at least half the number of field multiplications required to produce commercial volumes of affordable, early generation seed potatoes. The technology has been taken up by various food processing organisations to enable them to develop a reliable supply of early generation seed potatoes.

TECHNITUBER® seed production facilities are now located in Australia, the United States, Mexico, China and Thailand and Technico operates a joint venture facility in India. Production contracts worth over US$35million have been established with multinational clients for the supply of over 140,000 tonnes of seed and commercial potatoes in the region over the next few years.

The technology has recently won the Rabobank Agribusiness of the Year 2000 award for Technology and Innovation, the 1998 Australian Technology Award for Excellence in the Development of Agri-biotechnology and is selected for inclusion in the Australian Technology Showcase.

Company news release
N3086