LIHU‘E — Biotech seed company Syngenta will relocate about five employees to Kaua‘i from O‘ahu as part of a redistribution of research and development work, according to company spokesman Paul Minehart. Minehart said Syngenta made a decision more than a
LIHU‘E — Biotech seed company Syngenta will relocate about five employees to Kaua‘i from O‘ahu as part of a redistribution of research and development work, according to company spokesman Paul Minehart.
Minehart said Syngenta made a decision more than a year ago to pull its field operations out of O‘ahu. Employees will be transferred to company sites around the world, including Kaua‘i.
“It’s simply moving our research and development field operations around,” he said, adding that the move is scheduled to be complete by the end of June.
Responding to other media reports that the research facility will move to Kaua‘i, Mark Phillipson, head of corporate affairs for Syngenta Hawai‘i, said the company has no plans for a new facility in Kekaha, on Kaua‘i’s Westside. Rather, the employees will be stationed at the current facility.
He said there is no expansion planned for the current site.
Reports that 50 to 70 workers at the Kunia Research Station on O‘ahu will be offered jobs on Kaua‘i are false, Phillipson said.
“We’re just bringing over some employees that were on O‘ahu,” he said.
Phillipson said the decision was a strategic move by the company to meet its business needs for parent seed production.
While there will be no additional facilities built on Kaua‘i, Syngenta is planning to construct an $18 million facility on O‘ahu for parent seed production, according to Phillipson.
Once the jobs are moved, he said the company will no longer have research and development work on O‘ahu. Around five of the 57 workers at the Kunia Research Station on O‘ahu will be relocated to the existing facility on Kaua‘i.
Research and development on Kaua‘i will remain, he said.
“We’re not acquiring another acre of land,” Phillipson said.
Phone calls to the Syngenta facility in Kekaha were not returned by press time.
Based in Switzerland, Syngenta is one of five major seed crop producers in Hawai‘i and employs about 300 people at its facilities on O‘ahu and Kaua‘i.
• Chris D’Angelo, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-0441 or lifestyle@thegardenisland.com.
