Origin Agritech awarded a grant by the Ministry of Agriculture for two of its GMO corn traits

Origin Agritech Ltd. (NASDAQ: SEED) (the "Company" or "Origin"), an agriculture technology company, today announced that it was awarded an RMB6.5 million grant from the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) of China for the successful evaluation of the effects of two of its GMO corn traits.

The two traits that received the grant funding are GH5112E-117C, a double stack of insect resistance and herbicide tolerance corn and G1105E-823, an herbicide tolerance corn. These traits' testing standards have recently been approved, clearing the way for the final step of receiving bio-safety certificates, which the company believes will happen soon.

The MOA's grant program was established to award achievement in agricultural technology innovation and to speed up the technology's applications in agriculture production. The grant award of Origin's two GMO traits not only validates the success of our past research efforts but also shows the government's strong support of GMO research and product development in China.

"I would like to thank our research team at Origin for their fantastic work," said Dr. Gengchen Han, Origin's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "With the support from the MOA, we look forward to our technology making great contributions to Chinese agriculture development and to it benefitting the Chinese farmers."