Syngenta Louisiana plant poised for 2015 production

Date:03-27-2015

As the 2015 planting season gets underway, growers across the country will need crop protection products to combat pests and boost yields. The Syngenta agrichemical plant in St. Gabriel, LA, is operating continuously to fulfil this need.

Located on 250 developed acres of a 1,300-acre site, the facility employs more than 300 Syngenta staff members and 400 contract workers. It also includes the world’s largest space for producing atrazine, an active ingredient found in popular Syngenta herbicide brands, including AAtrex 4L, AAtrex Nine-O, Bicep II Magnum, Lexar EZ and Lumax EZ. The facility will also formulate Acuron herbicide, upon registration by the EPA.

All in all, the facility manufactures more than 100 Syngenta products — mostly herbicides, with some insecticides and seed safeners. Due to high demand, several of these products are produced in large tanks. They are then packaged and shipped across the country, and in some cases, around the world, according to a complex schedule overseen by Site Logistics Manager Josie Anderson.

“Getting products out and delivered on time to different parts of the world requires careful and continuous planning,” Anderson says. “The logistics group works closely with the production group, meeting on a weekly basis to determine the production plan on a day-by-day basis. The logistics group then takes those total volume numbers, determines the best pack size (bottles, drums, mini-bulk or bulk), and ships orders by train or truck to their final destinations.”

St. Gabriel only stores a minimal amount of finished product on-site, so the facility transports its products almost immediately upon coming off the production and packaging lines. And because these finished formulations go to more than 90 countries, efficient, reliable transportation is key.

“On a typical day, the site can load and ship 30 trucks of finished goods,” she says. “In season, more than 100 trucks per day may leave the site. Syngenta has standing contracts with multiple logistics providers to make sure we have access to reliable shipping, so that we can meet customer demand.”
Syngenta regional warehouses quickly receive domestic shipments from St. Gabriel. These warehouses then distribute orders, often to local retailers that deliver products directly to farms.

International shipments usually leave St. Gabriel by truck before being loaded onto large freighters at the Port of New Orleans. Of these shipments, most go to Latin American countries, Anderson notes.

“We can’t deliver our promise to help farmers grow more, if our products aren’t getting to them quickly and dependably, whether they need a couple of ounces or dozens of 900-pound bags of crop protection products,” Anderson says.