Syngenta's sales down 1% in 2017

Syngenta's sales were 1 percent lower, 2 percent at constant exchange rates (CER) in 2017.  Crop protection sales were 3 percent lower, 4 percent at CER, at $9.2 billion.  Seeds sales grew 6 percent, 5 percent at CER, to $2.8 billion.


Sales by region
Sales grew 1 percent (CER) in Europe, Africa and Middle East with continued growth in the CIS markets largely offset by softness in other markets.  

Sales were up 5 percent (CER) in North America driven by strong sales in corn and soy seeds and a 2 percent (CER) improvement in CP sales, with solid growth in Canada. 

Asia Pacific sales were flat (CER) with growth in ASEAN offsetting declines in India.
 
Sales in Latin America fell 14 percent (CER) with continued difficult Crop Protection market conditions and measures to resolve channel inventory issues in Brazil more than offsetting growth in the rest of the region.

Flowers and Controls sales were 3 percent higher at $0.7 billion.

Outlook

Erik Fyrwald, Chief Executive Officer, said: “Farm economics continue very challenging because of low grain prices. For the full year 2018, with our focus on bringing innovation and value to our customers along with working capital and productivity improvement efforts, we expect low single digit growth in sales and continued strong free cash flow generation.”