Atanor announces investment of US$ 70 million to focus on crop protection business

Atanor, an Argentine company which is part of the Albaugh Group, will invest US$70 million in the next five years for the development of crop protection products. 

 

The company announced that it would concentrate its business in the crop protection sector, closing its unities in Buenos Aires, according to official news agency Telam.

 

“It is a decision of the Group to focus on the sector of crop protection, where we see an opportunity for global growth,” said Legal Director and Corporate Issues of the company, Agustin Herrera. 

 

Last year, Argentina registered a huge expansion of high level technology use in agriculture, according to the Rosario Board of Trade and the Buenos Aires Cereal Exchange.

 

According to the Board of Trade, “it highlighted the comeback of quality agriculture” through the use of high technology and assured that “the changed way of thinking of agriculture and investments returned.”

 

They also pointed out that “farmers no longer think of survival, like in the previous years, and they are growing crops not just with the adequate technology to recompose nutrients that extracted from the soil, but also pointing to quality and higher yields.”

 

The Buenos Aires Cereal Exchange concluded that between 2010 and 2015 the use of high level technology dropped 35 percent in Argentina’s agricultural sector. The deterioration of technology employment responded basically to the increase of costs of inputs for each season. In the case of wheat, it was necessary to ensure a high level of technological methods with the doubling of products.

 

“The phytosanitary market was maintained $2.47 billion in 2016, after a drop of prices – which was compensated by the volume of sales. Atanor has grown 8 percent in year with sales, confirming its strategy of expansion of the portfolio in the new segments, which positioned the company in the top five among companies that offer agricultural solutions,” Herrera said.

 

According to the executive, “the goal is to be one of the top three until 2021, and this can be reached with the investments announced, which would allow to develop new molecules at a pace of five per year until 2021. These new products will be fungicides, insecticides and fungicides.”

 

Besides, Herrera announced, “the company will strengthen its structures of development and sales, besides increasing productive investment in its unities related to agriculture.” These are the plants of the Buenos Aires province in San Nicolas and Pilar, and Cordoba province in Rio Tercero.