2015 Summary of Global Agrochemical Company’s Activities& Trends Analysis

A review of investment and cooperative projects of global agrochemical companies in 2015 reveals that they have a clear idea about industry presence and business planning. Global agrochemical industry is a longitudinal and horizontal combined new mode of industry. In 2015, besides their continued research, production and marketing integrated cooperation, agrochemical giants made more efforts on investment in downstream industry chain projects so as to play a more important part in a larger arena.

Concerning crop protection-related business, agrochemical multinationals including Chinese and Indian manufacturers have taken actions for capacity extensions like for glufosinate and dicamba, represented by Monsanto’s $1 billion investment in dicamba production in the US, Bayer’s $50 million investment in the Liberty®( glufosinate) in Muskegon, US. As regards to distributions, the Roundup Ready PLUS® Crop Management Solutions platform of Monsanto has consolidated products of several companies including FMC, Sumitomo Chemical and ADAMA. Syngenta utilized its distribution advantage to distribute the Timorex Gold of Stockton in Chile, Mexico and Argentina. These measures enriched the crop protection product line of agrochemical multinationals, but also opened a window for cooperation with small and medium enterprises. Furthermore, Bayer CropScience initiated cooperation with the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC)  in weed control solution, which is a good example of agrochemical multinationals cooperating with research institution.

So far as crop nutrition is concerned, Japanese Sumitomo Corporation acquired a specialty fertilizer business from Sipcam-Oxon France, which enabled Sumitomo to rapidly get into the specialty fertilizer business. Some other multinationals focused on increase of crop yield and hence cooperated with some novel fertilizer companies, which helped farmers to increase the yield, as backed up by diversified products. Examples would be the cooperation between Syngenta and the Argentine fertilizer company Crinigan for increase of wheat yield, the cooperation between Bayer CropScience and Elemental Enzymes for the purpose of increase of crop yield.

The important role of seed in agriculture is attracting investment and cooperation from agrochemical companies. In North America, Bayer CropScience opened the breeding and trait development center for wheat, soybean, cotton and also expanded the rapeseed treatment plant; in Europe, Bayer CropScience opened rapeseed processing plant and extended the wheat breeding center; in India, Bayer CropScience initiated the vegetable seed research center; in Indonesia and South Africa, Bayer CropScience established 2 new SeedGrowth centers. Syngenta reached agreement with the world-famous seed company KWS and Group Limagrain for corn seed licensing in hopes of consolidating external resources or increasing sales channels; Monsanto cooperated with KWS in development of novel sugarbeet tolerant to glyphosate, glufosinate and dicamba; Dow AgroSciences planned to cooperate with Arcadia and Bioceres in development and promotion of innovative trait soybean; and would cooperate with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. 

Additionally, in respect of crop plantation and management, Monsanto and DuPont continued to take the lead in the development of the precision agriculture. As backed up by the agriculture-related “big data”, in 2015, they conducted series of cooperation with advanced farm machine companies, agro-technical companies and agro-service companies in a purpose to help growers to increase yield and profitability. In the sector of farm product deployment and distribution, the most active one would be Bayer CropScience. In 2015, Bayer CropScience cooperated with Farm Frites setting up a Food Chain Partnership initiative to enhance the sustainable plantation and production of potato in Europe; also cooperated with Santander, Unilever, and Yara to launch the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS) project  project to promote the development of soybean industry chain of Brazil.

From present perspective, it will not be enough for one company to rely on just one single platform to provide comprehensive service. The whole industry chain needs to play a part in the company’s effort such that the company can use multiple advantages within the industry to achieve its profitability and sustainable development to the benefit of the whole agricultural industry.

Table 1 Summary of Investment and Cooperation Cases of TOP6 in 2015

Syngenta

• expanded its North America Seedcare Institute in Minnesota， US
• expands research and development (R&D) and seed production facility in California
• and Fondation de la faune extend biodiversity partnership
• and Cambridge sign Vortik spray technology evaluation agreement
• and Argentina fertilizer company Crinigran signed a new commercial agreement
• and IRRI explore possible new areas of R&D partnership
• and SIRE sign agreement on Enogen corn enzyme technology
• and DSM collaborate to develop biological solutions for agriculture
• KWS and Limagrain expand corn traits licensing collaboration
• distributes Stockton’s Timorex Gold biofungicide in Argentina

Bayer CropScience

• expands its Lethbridge canola seed processing plant in Canada
• to expand presence in greenhouse and nursery markets in the US in 2016
• expands European wheat breeding center in Germany
• opened new oilseed processing facility in Germany
• to open SeedGrowth Centers in Indonesia and South Africa 
• expands production capacity of Liberty ® herbicide in US
• expands West Sacramento R&D labs
• opens SeedGrowth Equipment Innovation Center in Minnesota, US
• strengthens its presence in Andalusia, Spain and establishes the headquarters for vegetable seeds in Almeria, Spain
• opens R& D centre in India for vegetable seeds
• opened new office in Amman, ordan
• opens breeding and trait development station in US
• establishes subsidiary Bayer Middle Africa in Nigeria
• to invest $50 mn to expand Muskegon facility
• to construct two chemical manufacturing units for Liberty herbicide in US
• and GLOBALG.A.P. intensify their cooperation aimed at improving farm practices
• and Farm Frites jointly implement sustainable practices in European potato cultivation
• and GRDC collaborate to discover innovative weed control solutions
• and UWA collaborate to combat metabolic resistant ryegrass
• and AGCO collaborate to drive the Future Farm in Zambia
• and Flagship Ventures form partnership
• and US NWA partner to aid watermelon growers
• worked with Ernst Conservation  to benefit pollinators
• provides financial support to Iowa Soybean Research Center
• and Coopermota reach deal for industrial seed treatment in Brazil
• Vitamin Bee collaborates with Bayer Bee Care Program for Feed a Bee initiative
• and Texas Tech University opened seeds innovation center in US
• and Elemental Enzymes collaborate to improve crop productivity
• and RTRS collaborate to promote certification of soy in Brazil
• and Ernst Conservation Suppliers)  collaborate to create pollinator habitat

BASF

• opens new Agricultural Research Station in Pune, India
• opens its first representative office in Myanmar
• increases its production volumes of beneficial nematodes and inoculants in UK
• and Iteris enter precision ag weather agreement
• and Embrapa launched Cultivance® Production System
• and Monsanto Canada work together to provide growers weed management solutions

Dow AgroSciences

• opened its largest  Suppliers)  Research Center in Latin America
• expands operations in Puerto Rico
• opened new seeds R&D site in South Dakota of US
• and ICS-CAAS partner to accelerate rice product R&D in China
• and the Chinese National Agricultural Technical Education Service collaborate to promote pesticide resistance solutions in China
• and Synthace collaborate to accelerate development of fermentation-based production of crop protection products
• and AgroLAC partner to address food security throughout the value chain
• and Coherent Ag Solutions partner on new stewardship technology for farmers
• and Critical Path  reach license agreement 
• and CAAS partner to accelerate rice research and product development in China
• and Sorghum Checkoff commit $350，000 to sugarcane aphid control in US
• and Radiant Genomics collaborate on natural products for crop protection
• Arcadia Biosciences and Bioceres collaborate to develop and commercialize soybean traits
• and Brownsburg Parks create pollinator garden

Monsanto

• expands vegetable R&D centre in India
• opens Wheat Technology Center
• opens new cotton research centre Australia
• to build seed plant in Russia
• to invest more than $1 billion in dicamba herbicide production in US
• grants license to Dow on soybean genetics in Brazil
• and AGCO entered into agreement with Monsanto Precision Planting Unit
• and Albaugh reach licensing agreement for glyphosate
• and BASF announce progress in annual collaboration pipeline update
• and FMC expand Roundup Ready PLUS® Crop Management Solutions platform
• and KWS extended their partnership to develop next-generation sugarbeet technology
• and Scotts Miracle-Gro expand long-standing partnership on Roundup herbicide

DuPont

• expands multi-crop research center in Indiana， US
• opened its second Integrated Seed Science Center in Iowa， US
• opens cellulosic ethanol plant in Iowa， US
• establishes new innovation and business hub in Singapore
• opens laboratory for seed treatment in Brazil
• upgrades and expands its Iowa research facility
• opened new seed warehouse and office facility in Zambia
• gains exclusive license for genome-editing technology from Vilnius University
• and Caribou Biosciences enter strategic alliance
• and Quad County Corn Processors sign multi-year enzyme supply contract

M&A activities Covering More Groups

In 2015, global agrochemical sales dropped 8.5%, which was the largest drop over the last 20 years, causing global agrochemical industry to come down to an “ice point”. Under such background, a merging upsurge took place in an attempt to resist the harsh winter market. Since the mergers and acquisitions launched by the second-tier agrochemical enterprises like FMC, PSP and ADAMA in 2014, mergers and acquisitions in 2015 spread to the 6 first-tier agrochemical giants. In December 2015, DuPont and Dow announced a merger, which will be split into 3 companies; the bid from ChemChina and Monsanto for Syngenta is still under the way, which indicates the occurrence of more and more intensified merging activities between large agrochemical companies. For the details see the table 2.

Downstream distributors could not escape from the unfavorable market situation. For example, the pesticide sales of US distributors dropped 3.5% due to the price fall of farm product, farmer’s financing stress and reduced corn cultivation area. To look for business growth, the US agrochemical distributors including Winfield initiated merging activities to acquire retailers for the purpose of consolidation of pesticide and seed businesses.

As an agrochemical service provider, CRO experienced a series of merging and restructuring. In June 2015, HLS and Harlan Lab announced a merger. The new company was named Envigo, which achieved nearly sales of $500 million after the merger, having become the largest crop protection and chemicals research firm, 2nd largest research model and service provider and the 3rd largest preclinical pharmaceutical developer. The rest of CRO companies like Eurofins, Staphyt, SynTech and Mérieux NutriSciences also launched various acquisitions. These acquisitions have promoted the upgrading of the industry research, development and service.

Looking back at the mergers and acquisitions over the last 2 years, it is a manifest destiny that “the stronger lives and the weaker die.” With the industry resources being highly centralized, superior ones will eliminate the inferior ones and the market is expected to be further centralized. After being merged, the technical advantage and scale of economy of merged companies become evident. While the industry is going through the wave of mergers and acquisitions, the survival of small and medium-sized enterprises might become a serious concern.

Business Divestment Bringing New Opportunities

At the time of acquisitions, industry consolidation becomes a trend, which aims to restructure the principal business while divesting the underperforming business so as to focus on the company’s primary business toward higher profitability. 

In 2015, Dow AgroSciences was the most active one in split of its businesses. Within just 1 year, Dow AgroSciences divested its post-harvest specialty chemical business AgroFresh, the fumigant Vikane and Profume as well as part of the herbicide business and assets. The company said that an amount of $7 – 8.5 billion income will be generated up to mid-2016 from the divestment businesses. DuPont also said: “To divest some businesses is part of our growth plan which allows us to concentrate on new products to drive our present and long-term profitability.” For the details see the table 3.

After the acquisition of Cheminova, FMC managed to restructure its business operation in Brazil to speed up the business consolidation of Cheminova, particularly the reconfiguration of the product mix of the company such that stress is laid on high-profit and differentiated product while stripping away less profitable product, i.e. to sell the Brazilian generic business Consagro Agroquimica to Albaugh.

In August 2015, after refusal to Monsanto’s offer for acquisition, Syngenta announced a plan to sell its flower and vegetable seed divisions, as well as its Dutch Enkhuizen business unit so as to focus on the principal business.

For the acquiring party of the above businesses or assets, it would mean something different. Because of the different market positioning, for them the acquired businesses may just conform to the objectives of future growth. For example, Albaugh’s acquisition of FMC’s Brazilian subsidiary Consagro enabled a replenished product combination for the company, which helped to speed up Albaugh’s business development in Brazil; Regarding Gowan’s acquisition of the dinitraniline (DNA) herbicide assets of Dow AgroSciences, Juli Jessen, Gowan Group CEO, remarked, “we are enthusiastic to be able to acquire these proven products in this critical era for herbicide resistance management. The products are particularly significant for us in Canada and Europe where our growing sales force is centered on extending the utility of herbicide programs. And we are grateful for the opportunity to defend and evolve the DNAs for niches that have long been our sweet spot, such as vegetables and turf. This move is part of Gowan’s continued efforts to deliver solid chemistry to help solve our customers’ needs.”

With the further proceeding of merger and acquisition in the global agrochemical industry, the divestment of non-primary business and cross-operational business will become a subject of industry consolidation, which will provide some of the enterprises with new opportunities of development and expansion.