One of Hawaii\u2019s major crop seed research and development companies plans to lay off around 76 employees.<\/p>\n
A subsidiary of Germany-\u00adbased pharmaceutical, biotechnology and agriculture company Bayer AG announced the planned layoffs in a notice filed with the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.<\/p>\n
Bayer, which has seed operations on Oahu, Maui and Molokai, said it is making operational changes that include consolidating some of its farm activities on Maui and Oahu over time as part of an effort to better align its land, facilities and resources with the future needs in areas that include plant breeding and agricultural technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese changes are part of a broader transition that supports Bayer\u2019s ongoing success in developing high-value seeds for agriculture, and our Hawaii operations will continue to play a critical role in that important work,\u201d Becky Ryan, head of Bayer\u2019s Hawaii breeding pipeline and delivery operation, said in a statement. \u201cAt the same time, we fully recognize that business changes do affect our employees, and we are heavily focused on supporting them throughout this transition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bayer said it will maintain operations on all three islands after the shift, and that it is providing severance packages to eligible affected employees while also offering affected employees support services that help them regain employment and deal with financial impacts.<\/p>\n
A Bayer representative declined to share a copy of the layoff notice, and the notice was not immediately available from DLIR Thursday.<\/p>\n
Bayer is one of several seed research and development companies that have operated in Hawaii for dec\u00adades, and it entered the local market in 2018 when it acquired another global industry giant, Monsanto.<\/p>\n
The seed industry locally has been in general decline for over a decade.<\/p>\n
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s National Agricultural Statistics Service, the value of Hawaii\u2019s seed industry was most recently estimated at $112 million for the 2024-25 season. That was up 3.5% from $108 million in the prior season, but is down from $144.5 million in the 2015-2016 season and a rec\u00adord $241.6 million in 2011-2012.<\/p>\n
Seed farms in the most recent season occupied 880 acres of land in Hawaii, down from 1,040 acres in the prior season, according to the statistics serv\u00adice. The peak was 6,910 acres in the 2011-2012 season.<\/p>\n
Seeds have been the state\u2019s most valuable crop for the past 20 years or so after the demise of sugarcane and pineapple. But because the seeds produced in Hawaii are developed for research that can lead to mass reproduction outside the state as opposed to being sold, the statistics service calculates industry value based on operating expenses excluding land purchases. That compares with the value of crop sales for other crops such as coffee and macadamia nuts.<\/p>\n
Seed producers have had a presence in Hawaii since the 1960s, and have grown mostly corn but also other plants including soybeans, wheat, sunflowers, rice, rapeseed and sorghum. Hawaii growing conditions allow corn to be planted and raised to maturity three or four times in a year compared with only once on the mainland. The industry includes high-paying research jobs but also has attracted opposition over some of the work involving genetic engineering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Hawaii\u2019s major crop seed research and development companies plans to lay off around 76 employees. A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21161],"tags":[21182,2849],"class_list":["post-63009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bayer","tag-bayer","tag-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}