DuPont seed subsidiary DuPont Pioneer has opened a maize seed processing plant in Ethiopia. The facility cost DuPont some $2 million, rising to some $4 million over the next three years in the plant and in improving distribution and storage facilities. The company has benefited from government and US Agency for International Development help in establishing the facility. The collaboration will provide sample seed to demonstration plots and field training sessions, and the use and acceptance of ...

Cheminova recorded a 4.2% increase in first-quarter agrochemical sales to DKK 1,574 million ($271 million at the current rate). The revenue rise was achieved despite a delayed start to the season in the northern hemisphere leading to inventory build-up in the distribution channel. Higher prices in local currencies in markets around the world and increased volumes drove growth. The divestment of Stähler Switzerland, the Swiss operation of Cheminova’s German subsidiary, Stähler (Agrow No 657, p ...

Nissan Chemical recorded a 4.9% rise in agrochemical sales to ¥35,418 million ($345 million at the current rate) for its fiscal year ending March 31st 2013. The revenues are ahead of the company’s outlook of ¥34,600 million ($337 million) from last year (Agrow No 641, p 6). The introduction of the rice herbicide, Altair (metazosulfuron), offset the decline of other rice herbicide sales in Japan. The company also reports expansion in sales volumes of the acaricide, Starmite (cyenopyrafen), the ...

French crop protection company De Sangosse (Agen) and Czech biopesticide firm Biopreparáty (Prague) have agreed an exclusive deal for the development and distribution of the Czech company’s biofungicide, Polyversum (Pythium oligandrum M1). De Sangosse will be the exclusive distributor for the product in France, Germany and the UK, where it will develop, register and market it. The company’s marketing director, Christophe Maquin, says that the product will be developed for use on various crops, ...

DuPont has granted Syngenta a global licence to develop products based on DuPont’s new fungicide, oxathiapiprolin, while Syngenta has awarded DuPont exclusive access to its fungicide, benzovindiflupyr (trade-marked as Solatenol), for use in mixtures with DuPont’s fungicide, picoxystrobin, on soybeans and other crops in Brazil. Syngenta gains exclusive rights for foliar and soil uses of oxathiapiprolin on all crops in North America and for lawn and garden uses globally. It also secures ...

Makhteshim Agan of North America (MANA) and its affiliate, Control Solutions (CSI), have filed a notification in a US court acknowledging an error in the formulation process of two lots of the fipronil-based professional pest control insecticide, Taurus SC. The notification, filed in the US District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, acknowledges “a one-time human error” in which the product lots were not formulated with active ingredient made in accordance with a process known as ...

BASF and Shell have finalised a deal with former Shell workers for damages to those workers who suffered contamination at a pesticide plant in Brazil as far back as the 1970s, official news agency Agencia Brasil reports. The case was closed at the Superior Employment Tribunal in Brasilia earlier this month. The companies will pay a total of R$200 million (US$100 million at the current rate) for collective and moral damages, and further payments for individual damages including healthcare costs ...

The US crop protection and nutrition company, Verdesian Life Sciences (Cary, North Carolina), has acquired the UK agricultural products firm, Plant Syence (Howden, East Yorkshire). Plant Syence has acted as a manufacturer’s representative for Verdesian in the UK for the past 11 years. “They’ve developed strong local relationships and have offered keen insight into local markets that has led to the continued development of Verdesian products,” says Verdesian’s chief executive officer, J J Grow. ...

French crop protection company De Sangosse (Agen) has acquired an undisclosed stake in UK biopesticide company Alpha Biopesticides (Rougham, Suffolk). The move will allow De Sangosse to be the exclusive distributor of Alpha Biopesticides products in France in the agriculture, home and garden, and amenities sectors. The French company sells conventional pesticides and biopesticides across Europe, the US and Latin America, while Alpha owns a biopesticide portfolio, with a bioherbicide and ...

DuPont seed subsidiary DuPont Pioneer has opened a maize seed processing plant in Ethiopia. The facility cost DuPont some $2 million, rising to some $4 million over the next three years in the plant and in improving distribution and storage facilities. The company has benefited from government and US Agency for International Development help in establishing the facility. The collaboration will provide sample seed to demonstration plots and field training sessions, and the use and acceptance of ...

Bayer CropScience plans to build a “world-scale” glufosinate-ammonium herbicide plant in the US near Mobile, Alabama. The plant is expected to come on stream in the fourth quarter of 2015 in time for the 2016 growing season. The facility will contribute significantly to the company’s goal of more than doubling its production capacity for glufosinate-ammonium, Bayer points out. It currently manufactures the herbicide in the US at Muskegon, Michigan and in Germany at its site at Frankfurt. ...