Backward charmonium production in .PI.N collisions

The QCD collinear factorization framework allows one to describe exclusive backward production of a $J/\ensuremath{\psi}$ meson in pion-nucleon collisions in terms of pion-to-nucleon transition distribution amplitudes. We calculate the scattering amplitude at the leading order in the strong coupling constant and estimate the cross section of this reaction in the backward kinematical region for a medium energy pion beam available at the J-Parc experimental facility.