Cosaco: Committed to Copper-based Products with More Than 260 Years of Experience and Opens New Chapter

Japanese based company Mitsui & Co, Ltd. subsidiaries, Spiess-Urania Chemicals GmbH and Kocide LLC were recently renamed as Cosaco. The new common name for both entities aligns with the company’s aspiration as the global expert in copper salt pesticides, under one common global brand, for its different copper salt products used around the world in various agricultural and industrial segments.

Recently, AgroPages interviewed Frank Liebe, Director of Business Development at Cosaco. In the interview, he shared his views on the reasons for renaming, the company’s product lines and special features, value chain management and business mode, as well as global market landscape & growth prospects of copper-based Products etc.

 Frank Liebe, Director of Business Development at Cosaco

What are the reasons for renaming? Could you introduce the origin & brand connotation of the new name? What’s the strategic significance of this renaming?

Cosaco is the new company name for the two entities previously called Spiess-Urania Chemicals, Hamburg Germany (now Cosaco GmbH) and Kocide, Houston Texas, USA (now Cosaco LLC), who as subsidiaries of Mitsui & Co. Ltd., Tokyo, have been working increasingly closer together since 2014. The new common name for both entities make that connection more visible, to present one face to the market and aligns with the company’s aspiration as the global expert in copper salts for crop protection, for its numerous copper salt products around the world in agricultural and industrial segments. 

The companies have evolved with more than 260 years combined experience of innovation and technologies in copper salt products. Spiess-Urania Chemicals’ history goes back to 1815 in Germany, while Kocide’s story began in the early 1960’s when the American copper company Kennecott developed its first copper salt product for crop protection. Since 2018 both companies have been working jointly under one management, with Scott Boothey as CEO. This new company name together with our new slogan “essential copper salts” reinforces and underlines our commitment to provide sustainable solutions for our customers around the world under one strong, unified name.

Could you introduce the major agrochemical business of Cosaco GmbH and Cosaco LLC, global presence and core competitiveness?

Cosaco, with production sites located in Houston (USA) and Hamburg (Germany) serves customers across all continents with its specialized copper salt portfolio.  

Cosaco is committed to deliver premium, high quality copper salt products, from 100% recycled copper of the highest purity. Our formulated products for agricultural markets include a wide range of formulations, such as; WDG, WP and SC that are easy to handle and easily disperse in water, making them ideal for all type of spraying solutions. 

Our sales, development and quality teams are continuously working to ensure our products deliver customers’ needs, while meeting the highest quality and environmental requirements, in both production processes as well as in the field. 

Cosaco is proud of the experience and expertise that its employees offer to our customers; from helping to identify and clarify market needs, to developing solution concepts, to utilizing high quality and sustainable raw materials and transforming this all into a packaged and branded high quality solution, shipped to and ready to meet the market needs.

Can you introduce your company’s product lines and special features and share some innovation formulation technology? What are the strategies of product development and the plans to develop new products? How does your company combine products with services?

As mentioned, Cosaco provides high quality solutions for the plant protection market, through its globally recognized brands Kocide^®, Funguran^®, Cuprozin^® and Cobox^®, while also supplying innovative key products for plant nutrition, animal nutrition, wood protection, antifouling and other specialized industrial uses, maintaining its leading position in the market. 

Starting this new company brand name, we are underlining our joint commitment to deliver the most diverse and innovative product portfolio, through our unique expertise in copper salts. The efficacy of our products along with sustainable and environmentally friendly production processes, such as exclusively using recycled copper and implementing wastewater-free and residue-free concepts, are part of our strong dedication to offer modern, innovative, and sustainable products.   

At Cosaco we are continually working on ideas to improve the quality of our formulations, while also researching new and novel options to improve the efficacy of the products, seeking to further reduce the amount of applied copper; be that via new formulations by using new adjuvants to improve adhesion and rain fastness on leaves, or to provide more efficient copper salts as active substances for new mixture ideas. 

When considering the unique multi-site characteristics of copper-based fungicides, the copper salt products are increasingly becoming an invaluable component in modern fungicide programs and are gaining more importance in sustainable integrated pest management models, especially as resistance is increasing to many systemic chemical compounds and the availability and regulatory pressure on alternate active ingredients increases. 

In addition to our strong expertise in product development we also like to highlight the importance of a strong inhouse regulatory team within our business. As a founding member of the European Copper Taskforce (EUCuTF), we provide global know-how in copper fungicide registration matters. With this experience and expertise, we are well positioned to be able to respond to the rising regulatory requirements confronting most agricultural markets around the globe.  

Putting this altogether, underlines Cosaco’s current successes and ongoing commitment to constantly developing new product concepts, based on varying copper salts, to meet customer and market needs around the globe for modern, efficient, and sustainable agriculture.

How does your company manage its value chain and operate its global business? What are the business mode and criteria in choosing partners? What are the plans to develop new markets?

It is our commitment to deliver high-quality copper fungicides and to exceed the expectations of our customers, where Cosaco is working with experienced and dedicated partners in more than 60 countries around the world. 

Our sales teams operate primarily out of our commercial headquarters in Hamburg, Germany. We value our strategic relationships and partnerships with both, multinational companies as well as strong local national distribution partners.  

Cosaco’s local partners have always had strong agronomical presence in the field. Bringing this local technical expertise and our product innovation together, we aim to create value added solutions for customers and farmers, which are necessary to produce high quality agricultural products for a growing world population, increasingly sensitive to how their food has been produced.

With a low risk of developing pest resistance due to its multi-site activity, copper is an excellent resistance management tool when used in program with other fungicides with alternate modes of action and is helping to reduce either reliance on synthetic pesticides or helping to maintain their lifetime cycles in the market. 

The recent ban on some older multi-site fungicides in the EU and other parts of the world, including chlorothalonil and mancozeb, leaves copper as one of the few remaining multi-site options available for farmers to combat and manage fungicide resistance in many important crops.  

Additionally, the growing organic farming sector is gaining more prominence in modern agriculture, where Cosaco sees further potential for growth for efficient and effective copper fungicides, which will protect important organic crops from a wide range of bacterial and fungal diseases.   

How can copper-based fungicides be used to give the best returns, are there any other specific requirements for use of these products? Can you highlight the use of these products in organic farming?

Over recent years the continuing pressure to reduce rates of applied copper per hectare has led to an evolution of increasing efficacy. This has resulted in improved formulations, efficiency and plant safety through new processes, synergistic effects, as well as changes in particle size and surface area. 

A new process used in the latest Kocide formulations includes a patented co-formulant that surrounds cupric ions in a protective film to create a bioavailable form of copper, which is already broken down and immediately available for disease control. This means that two forms of copper are utilized: bioavailable copper for immediate use and fixed copper hydroxide crystals for longer term residual activity, thereby providing an effective carrier of the Cu++ ions to the target pathogens along with the sustained release of Cu++ ions in water. The new formulation offers optimum crystal shape and size for increased coverage and performance on the plant. 

In addition to our highly efficient formulations, we pay close attention to the increasing requirement to produce organic fruit and vegetables. All of our products and production sites are certified by numerous organic certifying organizations, such as OMRI, Ecocert, FIBL and Sohicert. We utilize copper of the highest purity based solely on recycled sources. This reflects our commitment to sourcing sustainable materials and to the supply of organic copper salts to the growing organic farming segment.

Could you briefly introduce copper-based fungicides global market landscape, driving force and its growth prospects over the coming years? What’s the strategic position of your company in this area?

We see varying trends driving the demand for high quality copper fungicides over the next decade. One is the more efficient use of copper fungicides, initially especially in Europe, but which will then flow through to other parts of the world. Cosaco has significant experience in providing efficient and more efficacious copper fungicides, with lower dose applications. This strong commitment to reduce copper input per hectare led to the development of Kocide 3000, for use in many crops around the world and also Funguran Progress in Germany, making both a standard for low input copper technologies.

The increasing demand for organically produced crops is both a challenge and opportunity for farmers. We are happy to be able to assist in this environment and to help respond to such challenges, with access to a global network of partners and through the expertise of our team to meet the various requirements from customers from numerous countries around the globe. 

Quality and service have always been amongst our strengths and first priorities, and this has been recognized over many years by our customers. A strength that will remain a firm part of our ongoing strategies for success. 

While we are continually seeking to improve the quality and performance of our formulations, we are also looking for new solutions with our customers and partners to face the challenges of responsible crop production, both for today and with a view for the future.  

If you'd like to share your company/solutions story, please contact Grace Yuan via: grace@agropages.com

This article was initially published in AgroPages' 'Annual Review 2021' magazine.