Ignacio Bartolomé, CEO of GDM, participated in the 60th edition of the prestigious IDEA Colloquium, which brings together the leaders of the most relevant national and international, public and private sectors. Bartolomé participated in the panel “The view of those who invest in Argentina”, together with Luis Pérez Companc (President of Molinos) and Hernán Kazah (Managing Partner of Kaszek), at the Sheraton Hotel in the city of Mar del Plata.
During the meeting, Ignacio reflected on the history and current state of GDM, the geographical expansion of the business, the intellectual property situation in Argentina, and the future of the industry. “We are a plant breeding company that seeks, year after year, to increase the productivity of the varieties we release to the market. After our expansion from South America to the USA and Europe, we are now growing in the Asian continent, being the first foreign company to register soybean varieties in China”, he assured.
Bartolomé also stressed the importance of the joint work of the private sector to solve the intellectual property problem in Argentina through the Sembrá Evolución program. “In China, IP enforcement is 70%, in Brazil 80%, in Uruguay 90% and in the USA 100%. This adversity makes you rethink how much more worthwhile it is to continue investing in Argentina or not. We decided to continue investing and, because of the role we have in the industry, to assume the task of trying to change that framework. It was an important challenge, getting together with our peers in the industry to create a beneficial solution for the whole chain, and the results are positive”.
Finally, the CEO gave his views on the future of the industry: “The important thing is to generate confidence and predictability to be able to think in the long term. From the companies’ side, we must set an example with concrete actions so that this scenario of certainty can become a reality”, he concluded.
