Syngenta Group China Vice President An Liru: Better performance driven by novel pydiflumetofen, fluensulfone, cyetpyrafen

An Liru, Vice President of Syngenta Group China and President of Crop Protection Business Unit, was recently interviewed during an industry meeting and spoke about the challenges and achievements of Syngenta China’s crop protection business. 

Q: In 2021, Syngenta China’s annual operating income reached $7.4 billion, up 41% year-on-year. Despite the supply chain challenges encountered in the fourth quarter, the annual operating income of the crop protection business increased by 30%. How has Syngenta Group China reacted to the unrest in the pesticide market? Going forward, what will you focus on to maintain steady growth? 

A: In 2021, the agrochemical industry experienced many challenges, such as the impact of COVID-19 on logistics and the unsatisfactory sales of cash crops, especially in the citrus market, which was rather depressed. By the end of the fourth quarter, we experienced China’s dual control energy policy, a sharp increase in energy prices, pressures on supply, and the rising costs of raw materials. Nevertheless, companies could have seized opportunities to perform well. While regulatory compliance requirements are becoming stricter, they also create a fair environment for competition. In the previous year, companies with differentiated products and differentiated services were able to achieve good results in certain market segments.

As far as Syngenta Group is concerned, its global performance increased by 24%, and Syngenta China’s crop protection business increased by 30% year on year, which are attributable to the following three measures:

1.Syngenta Group China owns many innovative differentiated and patented products, such as the representative product, Meitian (active ingredient adepidyn - pydiflumetofen), which effectively controls wheat gibberellic disease and rapeseed stalk break; Nimite (fluensulfone 40% EC) introduced by ADAMA Global, which is effective for controlling cucumber root-knot nematode; and our locally developed Baozhuo series based on Yangnong SYP-9625 (cyetpyrafen). All these products performed very well last year.

2.We have a strong industrial base in China, including seven technical manufacturers and six formulators, which are located in the provinces of Jiangsu, Hubei and Liaoning, respectively. These enterprises continue to ensure supply and support business development in China and the rest of the world, despite the major changes to the business environment.

3.We have our Modern Agriculture Platform (″MAP″), which can reach out to frontline farmers to offer effective and efficient services. These are all the sources of our performance growth.

Going forward, we are prepared to focus on innovation and collaboration. From an innovation standpoint, Syngenta Group China will make full use of its global innovation resources. In the coming years, we are planning to launch an innovative pesticide variety and an innovative formulation product every year on average.

Moreover, Syngenta Group China offers its own advantages in terms of biologics. Two years ago, we acquired Valagro, the world’s largest biological company, giving us a rich product portfolio and innovation capacity in China to support our rapid development in the country.

With regards to collaborations, by utilization our own advantages, one of which is the MAP platform as mentioned just now, we aim to help farmers grow quality crops and sell them at good prices, as well as to create conditions for better crop protection business operations, such that good products can be made available to farmers in a timely manner. The other advantage is Syngenta Group China’s relatively advanced seed industry, which allows for development of biological breeding technology by using its own traits to develop seed-herbicide combinations to promote future business growth. In summary, Syngenta Group China’s crop protection business will focus on innovation and collaboration.

Q: As a leading global agricultural science and technology company in China, how is Syngenta Group China leading and supporting the high-quality and sustainable development of the Chinese agrochemical industry?

A: Syngenta Group is a Chinese enterprise, and our business in China is always associated with our partners in a way that we can jointly contribute to the industry’s development. In China, we focus on industry development through two pillars. The first pillar is innovation and collaboration, which encompasses three parts, with the first being to introduce innovative products from around the world while creating some varieties locally. The second is to closely cooperate with Chinese research institutes to strengthen the industrialization of our technical research, as well as to our capacity for innovation; while the third part is to cooperate with Chinese innovation-based enterprises to jointly contribute to Chinese agricultural innovation. The second pillar is sustainable development. First of all, we aim to be an iconic company that constantly upgrades itself and improves our level of HSE. In particular, Sinochem recently publicized its global corporate HSE standard. We call it the FORUS system, which is a guide for the sustainable development of Syngenta Group China.

Q: During China’s 14th Five-Year Plan period, the focus of agricultural development shifted from ″agriculture, rural areas and farmers″ to promoting rural revitalization. What are the creative measures taken by your company to support the initiative, ″agriculture, rural areas and farmers,″ and promoting rural revitalization?

A: Ning Gaoning, board chairman of Sinochem and Syngenta Group, once said that we are never too near the requirements of the national strategy and the expectations of the central government, which demonstrates our strength in being a good part of the country’s rural revitalization. Syngenta Group China established its Rural Revitalization Division, which highlights our commitment to China’s rural revitalization and agricultural modernization. To do that, we strive to do the four following jobs:

Firstly, we aim to revitalize the seed industry and establish a germplasm bank in China, to become a major force in this sector. Secondly, we are prepared to launch a capacity building program for scientific and technological innovation covering agrochemicals, soil health and biotechnology. On one hand, we will make full use of global resources. On the other hand, we will build up our own capabilities, a strategy that we call, ″In China, for China.″ Thirdly, as previously mentioned, we launched a Modern Agriculture Platform (MAP), whose mission and goal are to improve the quality of agricultural products and increase the earnings of growers, to achieve the objective of ″growing quality food for consumers; selling at good prices for farmers; building up big data for the industry chain.″

Last but not least, Syngenta Group China is committed to training farmers. We integrate rich practical experiences accumulated at home and abroad with our experiences, having trained farmers in many regions over the years. We formed a complete set of training systems in China dedicated to training and educating Chinese farmers. Therefore, we hope to solve the problems facing growers, so high-quality new-generation growers can become the main force in the process of rural revitalization.