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Delta and Pine Land Company announces major expansion of its Aiken, Texas facility

Scotts, Mississippi
June 19, 2000

Delta and Pine Land Company (D&PL) president Steve M. Hawkins announced major expansion of the company's Aiken, Texas location today.

The $3.75 million expansion will provide consolidated storage for the company's seed production. According to Hawkins, changes in the cotton industry have encouraged D&PL's development in the High Plains.

"Farmers in the High Plains have welcomed technological developments - both in conventional breeding and the incorporation of transgenic traits," Hawkins says. "Several years ago, D&PL entered this market with Paymaster and we have introduced new varieties which have become market leaders. We have introduced Roundup Ready and Bollgard technology in our genetics and
farmers have found significant value in these products. Our business is expanding to insure they have the seed supply they want and need."

The expansion was detailed by Randy Dismuke, D&PL senior vice president. "Our Texas operations group has provided top quality seed for High Plains farmers for years, but this

Plant manager Byron Hannabas (center)
checks in on progress on the initial land forming
necessary to accommodate the warehouses
which will store an additional 30,000 tons of seed.

expansion will help us meet those needs more efficiently and with an even closer eye on quality," Dismuke says. "This will help us consolidate much of our storage at our Aiken facility, increasing the bulk warehousing capacity from 8,000 tons to 38,000. These new warehouses will utilize the latest technologies in seed storage and movement."

Also included in the project, is heightened quality assurance testing. The lab provides a full line of testing for seed vigor, emergence potential, presence of transgenic traits, as well as other key physical and physiological factors.

The expansion is expected to be operable by harvest. The bulk warehousing will store "fuzzy" seed (seed which comes from contracted gins) providing storage for the 2000 production crop. D&PL will process that seed in its Aiken plant as well as through the use of contract delinters.

Delta and Pine Land Company is a commercial breeder, producer and marketer of cotton planting seed, as well as soybean seed in the Cotton Belt. For more than 80 years, the Mississippi-based company has used its extensive plant breeding programs drawing from a diverse germplasm base to develop superior varieties. Delta and Pine Land (NYSE: DLP) has offices in seven states and facilities in several foreign countries.

Company news release
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