Syngenta started selling its Revus fungicide in Japan

Syngenta Japan, which began marketing its Revus Flowable fungicide October 1, says it expects of achieve ¥300mn ($3.3bn) in sales in the initial 2010 pesticide year for its Revus products, based on their strong effectiveness against diseases in potato and tomato plants as well as downy mildew in Chinese-cabbage and grape plants.

The Tokyo-based sales arm of Switzerland’s Syngenta AG says that Revus’ active ingredient mandipropamid, which was created by its parent, promptly attaches to the waxy surfaces of plant leaves and is protected from being washed away by rainfall, allowing long-lasting and stable pest management that is unaffected by weather conditions.

It plans to introduce five new chemical compounds, with a total of 16 formulations, targeting overall annual sales of about ¥10 bn by 2013, including sales generated by Revus Flowable.

Syngenta AG is promoting Revus as a major-selling global product. Worldwide sales of mandipropamid and mandipropamid-containing pesticides are predicted to reach $70mn this year, and peak sales of $200 mn are envisaged.

Mandipropamid is the first instance of a mandelic acid amide commercially applied as a fungicide. It has strong specific action on oomycetes that cause potato and tomato diseases and downy mildew in Chinese cabbages and grapes, markedly inhibiting the germination of spores. Since it was first registered as a pesticide in 2006 in Austria, it has been sold in 40 countries as a single-ingredient pesticide, and even more if its inclusion in pesticide formulations with multiple ingredients is counted. It is becoming a major weapon in farmers’ fight against potato disease and grape downy mildew.