Tuesday, May 9—For immediate release
VIATUS SETS SIGHTS ON WORLDWIDE FOOD SECURITY
OSLO, NORWAY (BUSINESS WIRE)—Viatus International, the world’s market-leading petrochemical company, announced today the creation of its new Crop Biogenetics Research and Development Division.
“The mission of the new division is to develop technologies that will boost agricultural productivity to meet the rising global demand for food, feed, and fuel,” said Ivar Karlsen, CEO of Viatus International.
“With the establishment of our company’s Crop Biogenics division,” Karlsen said, “we intend to meet this challenge with all our resources, establishing the equivalent of an agricultural Manhattan Project. Failure is not an option—not for our company, not for the world.”
In recent years, the company’s patented hybridization and transgenic technologies have increased grain, corn, and rice yields by 35 percent. Karlsen said Viatus anticipates doubling its improved yield rate within the next five years.
Karlsen explained the necessity for such a new division during his keynote speech today at the World Food Summit in Buenos Aires. Citing the World Health Organization, he noted that one-third of the world is facing starvation. “We are in a global food crisis,” he said. “Most of those suffering are in the Third World. Food riots are spreading worldwide and further destabilizing dangerous regions around the globe.”
Food security, Karlsen said, has surpassed oil and water as one of the new millennium’s greatest crises and challenges. “Both from a humanitarian standpoint and from a concern about global security, it is vital to hasten food production through innovation and biotechnology.”
Leading the way in agricultural innovation: Viatus International is a Fortune 100 company based in Oslo, Norway. Founded in 1802, Viatus provides products in 180 countries around the globe, enhancing lives and life quality through research and innovation. It is publicly traded on the NYSE under the symbol VI. The name Viatus is based on the Latin via, the way, and vita, life.