Mitsui & Co. aiming to join global top 10 agrochemical suppliers

Mitsui & Co. is targeting a place among the top 10 suppliers of agrochemicals in the world within 3-5 years by adding to its product portfolio and expanding its presence in the markets of Europe, North America and Latin America to more than double its annual sales of agrochemicals and their raw materials to 100 bn yen ($1.17 bn), from the current 40 bn yen.

The Tokyo-based trading house’s overseas strategy is based on the distribution of agrochemicals made by Japanese-affiliated producers and local producers, and the manufacture of licensed agrochemicals.

In Europe, its wholly owned Belgian subsidiary Mitsui AgriScience International is mainly in charge of its Belgian, Dutch and German markets, aided by two group companies: Certis Europe, based in the Netherlands, and Spiess Urania Chemical, based in Germany. The three companies are working to expand their sales in Italy, Spain and France as well as Eastern Europe, where Spiess recently opend offices in Poland and Hungary.

Mitsui AgriScience is, moreover, seeking to diversify the business from an emphasis on agrochemicals for vegetable and fruit cultivation to agrochemicals for major crops, like wheat, rapeseed and potatoes, resulting in a recent agreement to acquire all the shares of Agriguard Holdings, an Irish producer of off-patent agrochemicals. The move is also expected to extend the business into markets such as France. Mitsui & Co. is further exploring taking equity stakes in companies in India and China from which Agriguard procures agrochemical raw materials.

North America and Latin America, particularly Brazil, are viewed as important markets for expansion. In North America, Mitsui & Co. plans to increase its sales of biological pesticides, in addition to agrochemicals, and is looking into the possibility of teaming up with local distributors to gain a firmer foothold. An investment of several tens of billions of yen to acquire a medium-sized agrochemical producer is being pursued as well, the company said.

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