Bunge (BG) and GDM Form Enerseed to Breed New Oilseed Crops for Low-Carbon Biofuels
Bunge and plant genetics company GDM have formed a joint venture, Enerseed, to develop new oilseed crops grown for biofuel feedstock. Bunge, based in St. Louis, brings its global crushing and processing network and access to fuel buyers. GDM, based in Buenos Aires, brings breeding, trait development and gene-editing work.
The venture will start seed development projects in a few markets first. It may expand as crops and commercial demand mature.
Why new crops at all
Renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel plants need vegetable oil, and lots of it. Most of it now comes from soybean and canola, which also feed people and livestock. That ties fuel demand to food prices and limits how far the low-carbon fuel market can grow.
The answer the industry keeps coming back to is non-traditional oilseeds. These are crops that farmers can grow in the off-season or on fallow land, so they add oil supply without taking acres from food. Camelina and carinata are the best-known examples in this category. Bunge and GDM haven’t said which species Enerseed will work on.
The companies say the target crops should help soil health, cut erosion, fix nitrogen or need less water. For growers, the selling point is income from a field that would otherwise sit idle between main crops.
An open licensing model
Enerseed plans to license its genetics and growing methods to qualified partners, including seed companies, universities and technology developers. That’s an unusual choice for a seed business, where proprietary traits are usually the whole point. The logic is that a new crop needs a lot of players to scale. Bunge earns its money crushing and selling the oil, so wider adoption matters more to it than seed royalties.
Bunge’s chief operating officer, Julio Garros, framed the venture as part of its work to decarbonize supply chains and add value for farmers growing low-carbon feedstocks.
What’s missing
There’s no investment figure, no named crop and no timeline to commercial seed. New oilseeds usually take years to breed, test and get through regulators, especially with gene editing involved. Enerseed is a long-horizon bet on fuel policy staying friendly to crop-based feedstocks. For now it’s a structure, not a product.