Toyobo cuts production in Brazil with pest reduction

Toyobo, Brazil's largest manufacturer of biological inputs from fungi, has considerably reduced its production in Brazil. Last week, the Japanese multinational laid off dozens of employees and closed the second shift at its factory in the municipality of Salto, in the interior of the Brazilian state of São Paulo.

According to information gathered by AgroPages, the cut in Toyobo's production is due to the low incidence of the corn leafhopper pest (Dalbulus maidis) in the last second crop of the cereal in Brazil. Additionally, the crisis in the input industries was aggravated by the sharp drop in commodity prices in recent years.

Toyobo is one of the main B2B (Business-to-business) suppliers of global biological inputs, with the parent company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The Japanese company supplies inputs to giants such as Koppert, Ballagro, Agrivalle, Gênica, and Promip, among others.

The company specializes in the multiplication of fungi such as Beauveria bassiana, used as a bioinsecticide to combat Dalbulus maidis. It also produces the fungus Metarhizium anisopliae, more commonly used for root spittlebugs (Mahanarva fimbriolata).

Toyobo has a solid rice fermentation structure as a culture medium to multiply the fungi. The company has the capacity to inoculate 30 tons of rice per day but was inoculating only two tons at the end of last year.

The Japanese company projected to earn around R$160 million from biological inputs in Brazil last year but reached only about 70% of its estimate, leading to a reconsideration of Brazilian production costs.

Toyobo's director in Brazil, Minoru Takahashi, downplays the situation, stating that "layoffs are a business practice" and that the staff can be recomposed in the second half of the year. However, such cuts in personnel and production have not occurred on this scale in at least the last four years.

Toyobo also has other units in São Paulo that, at this moment, are also operating "with low capacity." According to Takahashi, this is a normal process for the between-harvest season.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)