Agrochemicals Market: Witnessing Growth despite the Coronavirus Crisis

Agrochemicals are indispensable in modern farming. These chemicals are used to augment crop yield, neutralize the soil, increase plant growth, and protect crops against pests and locusts. There are many kinds of agrochemicals which include insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and seed treatment chemicals which helps in optimizing their agricultural output.

The increasing world population is the main driver of the agrochemicals market. With the rising population, the demand for food supplies is also increasing. The agrochemicals help the farmers to upsurge the crop production without any challenges. With the application of such agrochemicals, the crops will get added nutrients which will help in the development of crop harvests.

Key Developments of the Market

According to a recent report published by Research Dive, the key players of the global agrochemical market include Syngenta AG, Bayer AG, Dow AgroSciences LLC, Agrium Inc., Monsanto Company, BASF, E. I. du Pont Nemours and Company, Sumitomo Chemical Co, The Mosaic Co., Yara International ASA., and many more.

These market players are converging on research and development of unique strategies which include product launches, mergers and acquisitions, upgradation of existing technology, partnerships and collaborations to withstand the market competition.

Some of the recent developments of the market are as follow:

• Germany based Bayer AG has completed its acquisition of US based agribusiness company Monsanto for $128 per share in an all-cash transaction of $66 billion in total. According to Werner Baumann, the CEO of Bayer AG, the deal is to be considered as a successful step towards the crop science business of the company and it is expected to enhance Bayer’s spot in the life science division.

The merger will conglomerate Monsanto’s digital agriculture tools, seeds and traits with Bayer’s crop protection portfolio for the farmers. The digital farming applications will definitely impact the cultivators in a positive way.

• In a recent press release, Nutrien has made an announcement about the successful achievement of the merger of Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. (PotashCorp) and Agrium Inc. (Agrium). This merger has initiated the organization of the world’s leading provider of crop services and inputs.

• Syngenta Group is going to acquire Valagro, an Italy-based biotech company for an unrevealed amount, as per a latest report.

Valagro is a producers of biostimulants and specialty nutrients that are used in agriculture, manufacturing, and gardening. The company also makes specialty constituents for animal feed, cosmetics, and food.

• The phosphate business of CF Industries has been acquired by The Mosaic Company for $1.2 billion in cash plus $200 million to support the asset retirement obligation escrow of the company, according to a recent report.

The acquisition has provided Mosaic the possession of a phosphate manufacturing facility, a 25,000-acre phosphate mine, a beneficiation plant, and an ammonia terminal. Currently, these facilities yield approximately 1.8 million tonnes of phosphate fertilizer per year, which is expected to increase the annual phosphates capacity of Mosaic to over 11 million tonnes.

Conclusion

Global agrichemical industry witnessed decline during the lockdown imposed in order to combat the spread of the coronavirus. However, the demand for agrochemicals has been increased because of the growing population and necessity of food.