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German companies commit to investment in agricultural biotechnology
Germany
September 24, 2004

by Patricia l. Short, Chemical Engineering News via Checkbiotech.org

Two of Germany’s chemicals giants have given a big vote of confidence to biotechnology within the agricultural sector.

Hans W. Reiners, president of BASF’s agricultural products division, told a recent media briefing in Limburgerhof, Germany, that “2004 as a whole is going to be a successful year” for the unit. The division is aiming to show an operating profit of 25% by either next year or 2006; it already raised the figure to 21% last year, up from 16% in 2002. Reiners said the division will be aided by its research pipeline, which holds a growth potential of $1.8 billion per year.

The group—expanded in the past couple of years through the acquisitions of divisions of American Home Products and Bayer—is reducing the number of active ingredients it sells from 300 in 2001 to fewer than 100; it currently has about 170 actives. Recent product line divestitures will have taken out sales of about $120 million this year, Reiners said.

The company has already opted to close its ag operations in Mount Olive, N.J., splitting that work between sites in Raleigh, N.C., and Ludwigshafen, Germany. And it is weighing how to restructure its sites elsewhere, including in Brazil.

Separately, Bayer inaugurated a new $20 million plant biotechnology innovation center in Gent, Belgium, the largest and most modern research facility of its bioscience group. The center marks an important milestone in Bayer’s plant biotechnology strategy, said Friedrich Berschauer, chairman of Bayer CropScience.

“Through the use of plant biotechnology and modern breeding, plants will be enhanced to increase the quantity and quality of food, feed, and fiber to the benefit of farmers, consumers, the industry, and the environment,” he said. By the end of this year, the bioscience unit will have invested about $100 million in R&D to support products in its pipeline.

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