Bayer Opens New Greenhouses in California

Bayer marked the grand opening of its West Sacramento greenhouse site to support the Crop Science division’s growing Biologics and Vegetable Seeds businesses. The $12 million complex is situated on 5 acres, the company said.

The West Sacramento greenhouse site will feature two new high-tech greenhouses located near Bayer’s existing research facility. Bayer’s local Vegetable Seeds research team will utilize one 14,000-square-foot greenhouse and an 11,000-square-foot screen house to work toward improvements in vegetable seeds trait attributes such as flavor and shelf life.

The Biologics Research and Development team will use a separate 11,000-square-foot greenhouse to provide plants for research in crop efficiency and disease/insect management, including an attached 4,000-square-foot headhouse containing a fully equipped laboratory area. On average, the Biologics greenhouse team will provide up to 3,400 high-quality plants to researchers each week. Individually controlled greenhouse chambers will allow Bayer researchers to grow a diverse range of agricultural and horticultural crops under different temperature and light settings, Bayer said.

The completion of the West Sacramento greenhouse site follows the grand opening of Bayer’s integrated R&D site for Biologics and Vegetable Seeds in September 2014. Bayer’s West Sacramento location also serves as the global Biologics headquarters of Bayer’s Crop Science division. In addition to the new greenhouse complex, the approximately $80 million facility consists of a nearby 10 acre site containing 170,000-square-feet of research and development space, including laboratories and offices and a 2,000-square-foot existing greenhouse.

The grand opening of the West Sacramento Greenhouse site is part of Bayer plans to invest close to $1 billion  in Capital Expenditures (CAPEX) in the United States between 2013 and 2016 and is one component of an overall global CAPEX commitment of $3.3 billion during that same time period.