The Arkansas Attorney General ordered Tuesday that an agricultural company, which is part of a bigger company controlled by the Chinese government, sell its land in Arkansas.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has signed Act 636 in the early part of this year. Act 636 prohibits foreign entities from acquiring agricultural land in Arkansas.

AG Tim Griffin stated that Northrup King Seed Co. owns 160 acres in Craighead County. This company is ultimately owned and controlled by ChemChina.

Griffin gave the company a two-year deadline to sell the land.

He also assessed a civil fine of $280,000 because the documents were not filed in a timely fashion.

KHBS 40/29 News contacted Northrup King parent company Syngenta via email and phone to find out more. We had not been able interview a Northrup King spokesperson as of noon on Tuesday.

Northrup King Seed Co., founded in Minnesota, in 1884, went through a series of mergers, acquisitions, and reorganizations during the 1990s, and became a subsidiary company of Syngenta in Switzerland, according to Minnesota Encyclopedia.

In 2017, the Chinese company ChemChina acquired Syngenta from Syngenta, for $44 billion. ChemChina merged with another company owned by the Chinese government to become a state-owned entity.

The U.S. Department of Defense will list ChemChina as a Chinese military company in 2022.