Deliver Your News to the World

Profitable growth with innovative products and business ideas


WEBWIRE

* New demands on farming require innovative crop protection


* Research and development pipeline with high potential


* Succeeding with new business ideas



The Agricultural Products division of BASF regards the global upswing in farming as the start of a long-term trend. “With sustained higher prices for farm products, the demand for innovative crop-protection active ingredients will also remain high,“ division head Michael Heinz told the press on Sept. 12, 2007. Comparing the first half of 2007 to the year-earlier period, the division managed with higher demand to offset both a 3 percent sales penalty from adverse currency conversions and a 2 percent sales erosion from last year’s disinvestments. For the whole of 2007, BASF Agricultural Products anticipates a rise in sales and earnings. The EBITDA margin will also increase, he said. “How big these increases will be depends largely upon the trend in South America,“ he added. “World market prices for farm products and foreign exchange rates will be the decisive variables on which the farmers there base their investment decisions.”

Cooperation with customers – Goal:
Higher yields, better quality of farm products
According to Heinz, the latest season has shown how great is the need of farming customers for innovative solutions. BASF offers new solutions continually. They come partly from its capable research and development pipeline, one of the strongest in the industry, and also from combinations of active ingredients drawn from the company’s strong portfolio and geared to market conditions. The company also works with its customers on new ideas of how demands for greater yield and better quality can be put into practice more successfully in farming.

As an example, Heinz cited the BASF products for plant health. The trail-blazer for this series has been products with the active ingredient F 500®. Beyond the control of harmful fungi with it, this active ingredient has also turned out to have a beneficial effect on the health and vitality of plants, he said. In U.S. corn farming, a crop on which the use of a fungicide had heretofore been unthinkable, HeadlineTM with F 500 has started to conquer the market, he said. “We are the clear trend-setter with this and we offer the farmers an innovative technology that is very popular as more and more corn and soybeans are planted for the production of biofuels,” Heinz said.



WebWireID47826





This news content was configured by WebWire editorial staff. Linking is permitted.

News Release Distribution and Press Release Distribution Services Provided by WebWire.