Syngenta Quadruples Corn Seed Production, Reports Strong Growth in Sales

Syngenta has announced plans to invest $77 million in the expansion of its corn seed production facility in Formosa, Brazil. Annual capacity will be quadrupled to 1.6 million bags by 2015.

7 Feb 2013 --- Corn production in Brazil is expected to almost double by 2020, spurred by growth in the pork and poultry sectors. Over the same period, the value of Brazil's corn seed market is expected to reach $2.7 billion with increased second season production and greater technology adoption.

Syngenta's Chief Operating Officer, John Atkin, said: "Brazil is already among the world's top three corn producers and has tremendous long-term growth potential. The Formosa expansion will help us meet increasing grower demand for our leading hybrids and our new trait combinations. These will also form part of our new integrated solutions which focus on grain quality, water efficiency and land optimization."

Syngenta's Formosa facility is located at the heart of 110,000 hectares of prime corn growing country. The area's climate supports two growing seasons and Syngenta's leading hybrid seed portfolio is well suited to the area. Formosa's location close to Brasilia means logistics infrastructure is also good, providing better export market access for growers.

The company reported sales of $14.2 billion in 2012, up 7 percent; up 10 percent at constant exchange rates (CER), with a strong fourth quarter in North and Latin America and double digit Seeds growth in all regions (CER). Net income was $1.9 billion, up 17 percent.

Mike Mack, Chief Executive Officer, said: “In 2012, crop prices rose sharply as adverse weather conditions in several regions resulted in significant production shortfalls, once again highlighting the fragility of global supply. Growers in the affected regions had to adapt quickly in terms of planting and investment decisions, while also dealing with ongoing challenges such as weed and insect resistance. The strong growth in Syngenta’s sales reflected our flexibility in providing solutions across crops and, increasingly, in addressing agronomic challenges through our integrated offers. These are proving their worth in developed and emerging regions alike, contributing to growth rates of eight percent and 11 percent respectively.”

“Since the announcement of our new strategy two years ago, we have been driving the development of our portfolio by crop. The results already achieved in the field and the potential for new integrated offers have enabled us to increase target sales for our eight strategic crops to $25 billion by 2020. In addition, last year we made a number of acquisitions to secure new technologies. We were able to do so while maintaining a strong balance sheet as evidenced by the proposal of another substantial increase in the dividend.”