tense

[Hanka]

Hi,

could you please help me with the tense in the following text:

Seed production in the manufacturing plant in XY (city) was launched in 1980. Corn seed used to be grown in this region before because of the climatic conditions suitable for growing seed corn but after the manufacturing plant was built, final seed treatment was relocated to XY (city).

The sentence should say that corn seed was grown there before the manufacturing plant was built, but is grown there even after it was built (only seed treatment was ensured somewhere else but was relocated to this region too). Therefore I am not sure about "used to be". Could it be used in this context? Or is present or past perfect better? (Corn seed has/had been grown in this region before ...)

Thanks a lot!

Hanka

 

[Anglika]

In this context and sentence, "had been grown" is better of your two options; I would probably have written "Seed corn was grown in this region previously...".