In an interview, group chief executive officer Morgan Nzwere said consolidation would have, however, made it easier to fund raise for new projects.
"The strategy in terms of growing the business is going to continue," said Mr Nzwere on the sidelines of the official launch of the group's new vegetable seed varieties at
"It was part of our strategy to consolidate the group. It makes it easier to manage the it and to fund-raise because we would be using one big balance sheet. Now that this was turned down by authorities, we have to re-strategise. At the end of the day the business has to continue to grow, we have to raise cheap funding for it to grow.
"Right now, we are about to open our new drying facility which will be officially commissioned next month. We have brought in
"It would have been easier had we been able to consolidate the balance sheet but we still have to find ways of going around it and grow the business," he said.
Last week, the seed producer re-listed on the
After the
Meanwhile, Mr Nzwere indicated that while the seed industry faces funding challenges, there were vast opportunities for the group across the region especially in relation to vegetable seeds.
"The expectation the world over is that the next billionaires will come from the agriculture sector. Global population is growing, people need to eat and we have land here in
"There are also vast opportunities in vegetable seed because this is a business anyone can venture into from their backyard," he said.
He added the group would continue working on new varieties that mature early, drought and pest resistant to ensure farming business remains viable.
He said: "There are new pests coming every year and we have to stay ahead of that. Farmers should be able to realise profits from their businesses."
The group last week introduced new vegetable seed varieties for the market in line with its vision of providing cost effective and high yielding varieties that boost agriculture output.
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