Bayer Investing More Than $45M CAD to Build World-Class Canola Research and Development Facility in Canada

Key Terms

precision breeding technical

Precision breeding is a set of methods that make small, targeted changes to a plant or animal’s genes to produce specific traits—like higher yield, disease resistance, or better nutrition—much as editing a sentence fixes a typo rather than rewriting a whole paragraph. For investors it matters because it can speed product development, lower costs and create differentiated crops or livestock, while also carrying regulatory, market-acceptance and intellectual-property considerations that affect risk and potential returns.

trait integration technical

Trait integration is the process of adding or combining a specific biological characteristic—such as disease resistance, enhanced yield, or a therapeutic function—into an organism, cell line, or product platform. For investors, it matters because successful integration can create new or improved products, shorten development time, and increase commercial value, while failures or regulatory hurdles can delay launches and reduce expected returns; think of it like adding a key feature to a product that changes its market appeal.

herbicide tolerance technical

A plant's ability to survive exposure to a specific weed-killing chemical without damage; often introduced by breeding or genetic modification so farmers can spray fields to kill weeds without harming the crop. Investors care because herbicide tolerance can change seed demand, input costs and regulatory risk for agricultural companies—like giving farmers a targeted tool that can boost yields but may also attract policy scrutiny or affect long-term weed control.

biofuels technical

Fuels produced from recently living organic material, such as crops, plant residues, algae, or waste, that can be used as alternatives or blends with conventional petroleum fuels for transportation and energy. They matter to investors because they affect demand for agricultural commodities, energy infrastructure, and clean‑energy subsidies; like swapping one type of gasoline for another, the shift to biofuels changes which companies, technologies, and supply chains capture revenue and face regulatory pressure.

CALGARY, Alberta--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Bayer Crop Science today announced an unprecedented $45+ million CAD investment to strengthen Canada’s leadership in canola innovation by establishing a cutting-edge canola innovation centre. Located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the facility will house seed development work for canola, camelina and winter canola, focusing on trait integration, yield trial seed processing and seed quality analysis.

Bayer announced an unprecedented $45+ million CAD investment to strengthen Canada’s leadership in canola innovation by establishing a cutting-edge canola innovation centre.

“A long-term strategic investment of this scale demonstrates Bayer’s commitment to Canadian canola and to the farmers who depend on it,” said Antoine Bernet, Country Division Head, Crop Science Canada. “Through this world-class innovation facility, Canadian farmers will benefit from opportunities for faster genetic gains – such as increased yield and enhanced agronomic performance. It will also accelerate breeding efforts towards superior product performance and support expanded herbicide tolerance and weed control options.”

Mike Graham, Crop Science R&D Lead, said it is the right time and location for this type of significant investment. “Over the last few years our canola breeding program has been completely redesigned through next generation precision breeding capabilities,” said Graham. “These shifts have enabled us to greatly accelerate genetic gain, build industry-leading disease resistance, drive increase in field data collection that improve product positioning, and enable delivery at scale of expanded herbicide tolerance trait options. This infrastructure boost in Canada supports this shift and will advance future innovation in canola and biofuels.”

Design for the new facility will begin in 2026 and we anticipate it to be operational by the end of 2028. It consolidates some of our canola breeding operations and seed generation activities, allowing Bayer to continue our journey to get the full benefit of our precision breeding strategy to bring products to market for growers in Canada.

Bayer’s current Smartpark site in Winnipeg will continue to perform early breeding workflows for Canola, while the current Carman site will focus on being a multi-crop nursery field operation.

About Bayer
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition. In line with its mission, “Health for all, Hunger for none,” the company’s products and services are designed to help people, and the planet thrive by supporting efforts to master the major challenges presented by a growing and aging global population. Bayer is committed to driving sustainable development and generating a positive impact with its businesses. At the same time, the Group aims to increase its earning power and create value through innovation and growth. The Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2024, the Group employed around 93,000 people and had sales of 46.6 billion euros. R&D expenses before special items amounted to 6.2 billion euros.

Forward-Looking Statements
This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer’s public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

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Source: Bayer