Bayer CropScience receives UK approval for pioneering seed treatment product

Bayer CropScience has received the first registration worldwide for its new fungicidal seed treatment product Emesto™ (active ingredient: penflufen) in the United Kingdom (UK). Emesto™ will be used in potato cultivation. It has outstanding efficacy against black scurf (Rhizoctonia solani), and significantly enhances quality and increases the marketable yield. The market launch of Emesto™ in the UK is scheduled for the 2012 planting season.

"The registration of Emesto™ in the UK is another milestone towards achieving a leading position in the global seed treatment market,” said Martin Gruss, Member of the Seed Treatment Leadership Team of Bayer CropScience and responsible for portfolio management. “We are confident that we will obtain approvals for Emesto™ in more than 30 potato-producing countries in and outside the European Union, especially in the emerging seed treatment markets in Latin America and Asia,” he added.

The Emesto™ product family is exclusively dedicated to potatoes, delivering solutions to potato growers and the potato industry by perfectly targeting their different needs. Bayer CropScience’s commitment as Diamond Sponsor of the 2012 World Potato Congress, to be held in Edinburgh, Scotland, May 27-30, reflects the company’s involvement in this crop. Furthermore, Bayer CropScience plans to develop customer-oriented solutions based on penflufen to improve agricultural productivity in other economically important broad acre crops such as oilseed rape/canola, soybeans, corn, cereals, cotton and rice.

penflufen belongs to a new generation of SDH (succinate dehydrogenase) inhibitors. Products based on this innovative substance have seed invigoration and root-growth-promoting effects, offering farmers excellent disease control – not only against black scurf but also against silver scab and other diseases – at low application rates. They are easy to use and show excellent crop safety and additional performance to existing seed treatment solutions, enhancing yield and quality. For the potato-producing and -processing industry, the Emesto™ product family provides improved storability, size, shape and skin setting of potatoes – important aspects for the sustainable production of potatoes.