Customers Highly Appreciate BASF Strategy in Agricultural Products

18-Apr-2005

BASF Agricultural Products division is going to further expand their role as the innovator in the field of agriculture. In a speech to the media at Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, where the division operates one of its two Research and Development Centers, Hans W. Reiners, President of the division, announced two new active ingredients. A new insecticide in the late development stage and close to market launch is highly favorable with regard to selectivity and performance. The second product, a new selective herbicide for use in soybean and corn is planned to be introduced in about five years. Both will provide growers with interesting opportunities.

BASF made the decision to direct their resources to the high-value agricultural markets of North America, Western and Central Europe, Brazil and Japan, which account for more than 85 percent of BASF's crop protection business. Studies in these markets show a high degree of customer satisfaction with BASF's products and services.

One striking example of BASF's innovation is F 500®. With this fungicide active ingredient, BASF has set a new standard in agriculture for the treatment of plant diseases. The active ingredient is extremely effective and controls the most important fungal diseases in many crops such as cereals, vines, vegetables and fruit. In addition to the outstanding disease control, F 500® strengthens the plants' resistance to stress factors and enhances their vitality, resulting in significant yield increases.

Based on this success, BASF updated the sales target for products containing F 500® from EUR300 million to EUR400 million. "Under normal weather conditions, we will achieve this figure in 2005 already", expects Reiners. "With this development we are on our way toward developing F 500® as one of the top five selling actives in the global crop protection industry."

Another example from Reiners is Boscalid, a fungicide launched in 2003/2004 and used in high-value crops such as fruits and vegetables. This active ingredient (used in Endura® and Emerald® fungicides in North America) provides a different mode of action. Reiners predicted it will be the company's "backbone" in a rapidly growing business of providing products to high-value crop markets.

To shape its profile as innovator, BASF over the last years has consistently made considerable investments in Research and Development, by far the biggest share of BASF Group's R&D money. In 2004, this figure added up to EUR273 million (or $339 million), which is up by EUR34 million (equal to $42 million) compared to the year before. BASF has identified "new and exciting opportunities" and plans to further increase the investment in 2005 and the years ahead. For 2007 Reiners sees a figure of about nine percent of the division's sales. At the same time, BASF refocused R&D investments on long-term growth segments: fungicides, insecticides, where the need for innovation is clearly visible, but also maintaining some selective herbicide targets.

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