S&W Seed Company Expands Sunflower Focus in Europe

SACRAMENTO, Calif., March 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- S&W Seed Company (Nasdaq: SANW) has announced the appointment of European agricultural executive Ernst Topitschnig to the newly-created role of European Vice President of Sales. Topitschnig's responsibilities will include leading S&W's sales expansion in the region, with particular responsibility for building S&W's sunflower operations in Eastern Europe and supporting S&W's alfalfa, grain and forage sorghum efforts within the region.

Ernst Topitschnig is a senior agribusiness executive with over 25 years of experience in the agriculture industry, including extensive international experience in hybrid seeds and traits. Topitschnig has worked with several global seed companies including Pioneer Hi-Bred Inc., KWS Central and Eastern Europe and Nuseed Europe as Managing Director. He also has worked with various companies in Argentina and in China. He has focused primarily on the hybrid markets in Russia, Ukraine and Europe, with an emphasis on sunflower, maize and sorghum. Topitschnig will be based in Austria.

Mark Wong, Chief Executive Officer of S&W Seed Company, commented, "S&W Seed Company is committed to the expansion of our sunflower operations in Europe and are excited to be adding Ernst Topitschnig to lead our sales effort in the region. Eastern Europe in particular is the largest sunflower production region, with greater than 60% of the world's production based in the Ukraine and Russia. Ernst's vast experience not only in sunflower, but in understanding the business environment in the region should serve us well. We look forward to leveraging the efforts of our breeders, which have developed elite disease resistant sunflower seed hybrids with specific oil profiles—both polyunsaturated and linoleic—and strong yield potential for different growing conditions around the world."

Mr. Topitschnig commented, "S&W has a well-integrated range of strategic agricultural solutions, separately and together presenting great opportunity and value to industry. I'm extremely proud to be joining this team. S&W has a leading sunflower research and development program, with breeding facilities based in Hungary, Australia and Argentina. The company is the largest sunflower operator in Australia with a tremendous opportunity as we expand the focus throughout the rest of the world with unique products. Global markets are hungry for more of this kind of quality in all crops, and I believe S&W is well placed to service this demand."

David Callachor, Executive Vice President - International, said "Ernst's appointment is a further step in S&W's strategies to provide a single-source solution for farmers seeking excellence in all key premium seed varieties. Ernst has a wealth of experience in multi-national seed operations and is briefed to consolidate and grow our entire European business, with a particular focus on leading our global sunflower strategy in Eastern European countries such as Ukraine, Russia, Romania and Hungary. We are delighted that he is bringing his expertise to our team."

About S&W Seed Company
Founded in 1980, S&W Seed Company is a global agricultural company headquartered in Sacramento, California. S&W's vision is to be the world's preferred proprietary seed Company which supplies a range of forage and specialty crop products that supports the growing global demand for animal proteins and healthier consumer diets. S&W is a global leader in alfalfa seed and sorghum hybrid, with significant research and development, production and distribution capabilities. S&W also provides hybrid sunflower and is utilizing its research and breeding expertise to develop and produce stevia, the all-natural, zero calorie sweetener for the food and beverage industry. For more information, please visit www.swseedco.com.

Safe Harbor Statement
This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may," "future," "plan" or "planned," "will" or "should," "expected," "anticipates," "draft," "eventually" or "projected." Forward-looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to, statements concerning the expansion of our sunflower production and seed development efforts in Europe; Mr. Topitschnig's anticipated contributions to our global operations, including with respect to the European sunflower market and execution of our strategic initiatives; global demand for our products, including our positioning to serve such demand; and our belief regarding current and future opportunities in Europe, our strategic positioning and the advancement of our strategic initiatives. You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risk that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements and risks associated with our ability to successfully commercialize, optimize and commercialize our business.  These and other risks are identified in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including without limitation our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2018, and in our other filings subsequently made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date on which they were made. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of the receipt of new information, the occurrence of future events or otherwise.

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SOURCE S&W Seed Company