Syngenta puts hope on Brazil, Asia

Syngenta last month posted a forecast-beating set of 2010 figures on the back of strong demand in emerging markets, benefiting from soaring food prices as farmers invest in products to boost harvests and buy more weed and bug killers. "Brazil is becoming the largest market for us globally, we have strongly invested and it has shown a fantastic development," Chief Executive Michael Mack told Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in an interview published on Sunday.

"However, Asia has the best growth prospects -- in countries such as Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. Via our pesticides and seeds, we are able to increase crop yields by 30, 40 and even by 100 percent there."

In 2010, the company generated $2.575 billion of sales in Latin America and $1.795 billion in the Asia Pacific region, compared with total sales of $11.6 billion.

At $3.696 billion, the Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) region remains the largest region by sales.