Tembotrione from Bayer CropScience approved in Brazil

Monheim, July 2008 – Bayer CropScience’s active ingredient tembotrione has been approved for use in Brazil. This means that the new corn herbicide Soberan® (tembotrione + isoxadifen) can be launched in time for this year’s growing season. “Brazil is a strategically important market for Bayer CropScience”, commented Christophe Dumont, Head of the company’s Strategic Business Unit Herbicides. “The launch of Soberan® is intended to further expand our leading position as a supplier of crop protection products.”

Tembotrione, from the triketone chemical class, is already available commercially in Hungary, Austria, Serbia and the United States under the brand name Laudis®. Regulatory approval is expected to be granted in additional major corn-growing countries in the course of this year.

The herbicidal compound tembotrione is a leaf-active substance that eliminates the protection of chlorophyll against UV light in weeds. It is exceptionally well tolerated by corn plants. Soberan® can be used in the post-emergence phase to control a wide spectrum of weeds, including species that are difficult to eliminate. The product combines rapid action with a user-friendly formulation and good rain-fastness to offer farmers a number of major advantages over conventional products.

Soberan® has the potential to become a new standard in conventional weed control as it meets the highest requirements in terms of quality and yield. It can be used in tank mixes, for example in combination with the established product Atrazine. Soberan® is also extremely well suited for use in herbicide-tolerant systems as an effective component in efficient resistance management programs. Gerhard Bohne, Marketing Director of

Bayer CropScience in Brazil is confident about Soberan®, describing it as “an innovative product for the local market that is adapted to the specific needs of our customers in Brazil"

Brazil - the third-largest producer of corn in the world

Brazil produced around 51 million tons of corn in 2007, making it one of the world’s major corn producers after the United States and China. The area under corn was expanded slightly last year and, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IGBE), corn production is expected to reach 56.1 million tons this year.

The growing demand in the United States for conventional corn as an animal feedstuff and globally as a raw material for the production of ethanol is conferring ever greater importance on innovative crop protection products as a way of safeguarding harvests. “Consumption has been outstripping production since 2006 and global reserves of corn are diminishing”, Christophe Dumont explained. The main focus of Bayer CropScience activities in Brazil is therefore research into and the development of new agrochemicals to safeguard the quality of corn and to protect corn harvests.

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. Bayer CropScience AG, a subsidiary of Bayer AG with annual sales of about EUR 5.8 billion (2007), is one of the world’s leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of crop protection, non-agricultural pest control, seeds and plant biotechnology. The company offers an outstanding range of products and extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture and for non-agricultural applications. Bayer CropScience has a global workforce of about 17,800 and is represented in more than 120 countries. This and further news is available at: www.newsroom.bayercropscience.com
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