Harry Stine: Sows trade with China

Harry Stine, founder and owner of the world's largest private seed company Stine Seed in Adel, Iowa, speaks about his China connection from his modest office. MAY ZHOU / CHINA DAILY

Iowa billionaire Harry Stine has been compared to Gregor Mendel, an 1800s Austrian monk and the father of cross-bred pea plants.

Growing up poor as a farm boy, Stine became a successful inventor and businessman by creating high-yield corn and soybean seeds through genetic modification and cross-breeding and by licensing them to multinational companies.

While Mendel had only about 50 acres to work with to find out the basic rules of heredity, Stine has 28,000 acres to cross-breed corn and soybean plants based on the same principle, creating Stine Seed, the world's largest privately owned seed company.

On a windy, sunny summer morning, Stine showed his demonstration corn and soybean plants at the company's modest headquarters in Adel, Iowa.

"This year, we have 35,000 different seeds. There are 400,000 corn plants in the nursery. Every one of them will be pollinated by hand," Stine said.

Pointing to the corn plants, Stine said: "We put two inbreeds together to make a hybrid. Then we plant the genetics in the US and other places around the world, including China," he said.

For him, there are plenty of reasons he has many connections with China.

"My first main business was in soybean plant breeding, and all of our soybeans originally came from Asia, primarily China in the early 1900s. We would not have the success we had today if we didn't have the opportunity to use Chinese soybeans to start with," said Stine, while pointing to the soybean nursery on the farm.

Stine was also one of the first people invited by the Chinese government to visit China in early 1976.

He ran into Zhou Enlai's funeral procession in the streets of Beijing. "Zhou did a good job in a complicated situation," Stine said.

Since his first visit to China in 1976, Stine had taken his family to tour China a couple of times. He also spoke at the 2015 China Development Forum in Beijing.

"Anyone who had been in China then and now has to have great admiration for the progress and change (that has) occurred in China. Combined with China's long history, I only have great respect and appreciation for both China and its people," Stine said.

Stine's father moved to the current farm in 1934, when it was relatively small.

"We worked long hours and had a small income. I kind of identify with that kind of small farmer in China and want to help them wherever I can," Stine said.

Beginning in 2012, with the help of Zhao Li at the Iowa China Group, Stine began making connections with Chinese seed companies and now provides high-yield corn and soybean seeds to farms around China.

Since then, "we have established a business relationship with a few Chinese companies", Stine said.

Stine said his products can help Chinese farmers to increase their corn yield by one third and soybean yield by 10 to 20 percent. He wants to help Chinese farmers reach the same level of production in the US.

So far, Stine has sent hundreds of products to China to test which best fit China's environment. "Some not doing well here can do well in China," he said.

Although a relative newcomer to China's seed business, Stine Seed is moving fast. Already, China has become its largest market outside of the US. The company has registered three hybrid corns with the Chinese government, and more are coming. Stine seeds are being planted in half of China's provinces.

Now, Stine's connection with China is getting much stronger: In June, ChinaChem acquired Syngenta, one of the largest global agricultural chemical and seed companies.

"The largest company we deal with here in the US is Syngenta. We have a lot of contractual agreements with Syngenta. So you might say that today most of our business is done with the Chinese," Stine said.

Stine is confident that his seed business will grow rapidly in China. "We are more cooperative with local companies and government than some other American seed companies," he said.

Many US companies don't want to put soybeans in China because they think they will lose control.

"It's true, but I don't care," Stine said. "I want to help Chinese soybean farmers. It was Chinese soybean that made me successful in the first place, so I am happy to give some new varieties back to China.

"Some (genetic seeds) will be used in China in ways not permitted here," he said. "We constantly have newer and better genetics, so it's a minor problem, not a major one. Yes, China should and will change, but let it happen; it will be OK."

Stine has razor-sharp focus and loves working in the field. To him, the farm is his playhouse. "I hire people to play golf, to go fishing, to go to ballgames. I come here to play every day," he joked.

Stine's love of ping-pong is legendary, and he has beaten many Chinese seed executives. A big ping-pong table sits in one of the company's offices. He recalled that he beat someone from Japan in the hotel when he first visited China in 1976, but lost to the delegation's Chinese bus driver.

"They were looking at a picture of me playing ping-pong when I visited the Department of Agriculture in China," chuckled Stine.

When it comes to China-US relations, Stine said it does the world a lot of good for the two to work together.

"We should forget about the differences and focus on working together on issues, like, there are terrorists running around, and China is a good partner to work with on that," Stine said.

With the two visits to Iowa made by President Xi Jinping and the new appointment of former Iowa governor Terry Branstad as the new US ambassador to China, Iowa is forging an ever-growing tie with China.

"Branstad is a longtime friend, and his ambassadorship will benefit Iowa, the agricultural business and the US as a whole," Stine said.