Sumitomo moving to gear up agrochemical trading in India

Sumitomo Crop. is taking active steps through Sumitomo corporation India to expand the group’s business in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and petrochemicals in India, according to Hideo Ozaki, branch manager of the India subsidiary’s Mumbai office.

The subsidiary, headquartered in New Delhi, has a staff of about 100, including Japanese and local employees, and posted sales of around 70 bn yen ($789 mn) in fiscal 2008.

In the life-sciences segment, Sumitomo is “leveraging India’s skills in synthesis technologies and its low costs, and making progress in product supply through local production, joint production and contract manufacturing of pharmaceutical/agrochemical ingredients and their intermediates,” said Ozaki.

It plans to establish and extend its supply chains between manufactures and markets for the generic drugs and agrochemicals that are increasingly supplied by the India industry to the global market. To tap Indian agrochemical demand, it is looking into pesticide registration through the subsidiary, and the local production and sales of its own agrochemicals.