Agritope, Inc. today announced it has completed a $2.5 million private placement of 500,000 shares of Series A Preferred Stock at a price of $5 per share. The shares were purchased by Vilmorin Clause & Cie, a leading worldwide vegetable seed company based in France, which already owns 214,285 shares of Series A Preferred Stock. For every four shares of Series A Stock purchased in the private placement, Vilmorin also received a warrant to purchase one additional share of Series A Stock at a price of $7 per share at any time over the next five years. Each share of Series A Stock is convertible into one share of Agritope Common Stock.

Vilmorin intends to sell 150,000 shares of Series A Stock together with the related warrants for
$750,000 to Hazera Quality Seeds Ltd. Hazera, an Israeli seed company, has had a strategic alliance with Vilmorin since 1998. After completion of the sale, Vilmorin will own 564,285 shares of Series A Stock, or 11.8% of the outstanding capital stock of Agritope. Hazera's holdings will amount to 3.1% of Agritope's outstanding capital stock.

"We will use the proceeds of the private placement to continue developing improved varieties of
fruits and vegetables,'' said Adolph J. Ferro, president and chief executive officer of Agritope. "As a world leader in its markets, Vilmorin has made a serious commitment to research, spending almost 13% of its professional seed revenues on various research initiatives aimed a developing improved plant varieties.''

"Vilmorin companies have been collaborating with Agritope scientists on a number of projects over the past several years. We made our initial equity investment in 1998 when Agritope first became a publicly traded company,'' said Pierre Lefebvre, chief executive officer of Vilmorin and a member of the Agritope board of directors. ``Now that Agritope is taking steps to expand its activities, we decided that the time was right to increase our ownership position so that we will have a larger stake in its future.''

Agritope is an Oregon-based agricultural biotechnology company that develops improved plant
products and provides technology to the agricultural industry. Its fruit and vegetable division
specializes in the development of novel fruit, vegetable and flower varieties. Agrinomics LLC, its
50%-owned joint venture with Rhone-Poulenc, conducts a research, development and
commercialization program in the field of plant functional genomics. Vinifera, Inc., its majority owned subsidiary, offers superior grapevine plants to the premium wine industry together with disease testing and elimination services. Agritope shares closed September 29, 1999 at $2.

Founded in France in 1743, Vilmorin specializes in the worldwide breeding, production and
distribution of vegetable and flower seeds to the home garden and professional markets. It is the
largest company in the world serving the home garden market and the second largest company in the professional vegetable seed market. Its subsidiary, Harris Moran Seed Company, in Modesto,
California, has been working with Agritope for several years to develop longer-lasting cantaloupe and other improved varieties of produce. Vilmorin's shares are traded on the second marche of the Paris Bourse.

Hazera Quality Seeds Ltd. breeds, develops, processes and markets hybrid vegetable and field crop seeds. With more than 60% of its total seed production exported to over 50 countries worldwide, Hazera is Israel's leading breeder, producer and exporter of vegetable and field crop seeds. Hazera recently completed an initial public offering of its shares on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange.

Company news release
N2143