Crystal Crop Protection Ltd expects to be among the many prime ten within the nation

Crystal Crop Protection Ltd expects to be among the many prime ten seed firms within the nation with the latest acquisition of seed manufacturers from Bayer CropScience.

Crystal Crop acquired cotton, mustard, pearl millet and sorghum hybrid seed manufacturers from Bayer for an undisclosed sum lately.

“The acquisition will place us among the top ten seed companies in the country,” mentioned Ankur Aggarwal, Managing Director, Crystal Crop Ltd. With this buyout, the seed enterprise of Crystal Crop will develop from round ₹75 crore to about ₹300 crore.

The Bayer deal is the third such acquisition carried out by Crystal Crop within the seed sector. It had acquired Rohini Seeds in 2011 and Syngenta’s Indian sorghum and pearl millet enterprise in 2018.

In the millets section, Crystal Crop shall be among the many prime three gamers with the most recent acquisition increasing its share to round 15 per cent of the estimated market of 16,000 tonnes of pearl millets, Aggarwal mentioned.

In sorghum hybrids, Crystal Crop is the market chief, Aggarwal mentioned including that the corporate continues to have a presence within the maize hybrids. “We continue to sell around 1500 tonnes of maize seeds,” he mentioned.

Similarly, in mustard, Crystal expects to be among the many prime 3-4 gamers promoting hybrids. “Mustard is an exciting opportunity and some of the new hybrids are very promising. We are looking to expand this many folds from here, probably looking at coming to the leadership position,” Aggarwal mentioned. Crystal Crop is working round 5-6 mustard hybrids, of which two are prone to be launched within the subsequent 12 months.

In the hybrid mustard seed market of round 6,000 tonnes, Crystal Crop will develop its share to round 15 per cent.

The buyout of Bayer’s Surpass model has helped Crystal Crop bulk up its hybrid cotton seeds enterprise and improve its market share from one per cent to 5 per cent of the estimated 18,800 tonnes. “Our cotton seed business will be sizeable. We would be among the five to seven companies with market of 1.5-2 million packets,” he mentioned.

Further, Aggarwal mentioned the acquired manufacturers would contribute to round 10 per cent of the Crystal Crop’s revenues from subsequent monetary 12 months. Crystal Crop had clocked revenues of ₹2,050 crore throughout 2020-21, bulk of it coming from the crop safety enterprise.

Strengthening R&D

As a part of the deal, along with the seed manufacturers, all the breeding programme, analysis and improvement amenities and about 45 member R&D crew has additionally been transferred to Crystal.

“Our R&D strength would be close to 60-65 people in total in seed business, while we have another 30-35 people in crop protection business,” Aggarwal mentioned including that the corporate would proceed to focus its R&D on the present subject crops and strengthen its place in these classes.

Meanwhile, in its dominant crop safety enterprise, Crystal Crop is increasing its technical manufacturing capabilities to scale back its dependence on China. The firm has invested round ₹100 crore in a seven acres greenfield technicals manufacturing facility in Dahej for herbicides. “We expect to begin production in our Dahej facility from February 1, 2022,” Aggarwal mentioned.

Crystal Crop has two different amenities in Nagpur and close to Sonipat in Haryana, the place it manufactures pesticides and fungicides. The firm can also be investing round ₹100 crore in these two amenities, he mentioned.

The firm has a complete of 76-odd crop safety merchandise together with 30 pesticides, 24 herbicides, 13 fungicides and 9 bio-stimulants. Aggarwal mentioned the corporate’s crop safety enterprise has been rising increased than the business common and clocked a compounded annual development fee of 15 per cent prior to now 5 years.