The State Of BASF

Avatar for Matt Hopkins By Scott C. Lucas|26 April 2006

I am fresh off the plane from a visit to Washington, DC to attend a media event hosted by BASF to spread the word about the state of the company of the new innovations on the horizon. Full coverage of the event will appear in an upcoming issue of Farm Chemicals International, but in the meantime, here are a few highlights of the presentations delivered to us at the Summit.

  • 2005 Sales Strong – BASF’s ag product sales reached approximately US $4.1 billion, led by fungicides (40%) and herbicides (37%), with insecticides and other products representing 23% of total sales. Regionally, the lion’s share of BASF sales were in Europe (43%), followed by North America (29%), South America (20%) and the Asia-Pacific region (8%). The balance in BASF’s portfolio (especially with the recent addition of a traits business) has kept the company from being too heavily affected by any particular market’s fluctuations.
     
  • R&D On The Rise – While there has been plenty of analysis on the slow-down of crop protection R&D, BASF appears to be going against the grain. The company’s focus on research and development is growing, with goals such as to “secure a broad range of pipeline products” and to “improve solutions with innovative fungicides,” according to a presentation delivered by Mike Heinz, president, agricultural products for BASF. The R&D emphasis is on new applications and areas of opportunity such as seed treatments and plant health products, as well as the discovery of novel fungicide and insecticides. As far as the crop protection R&D slow-down, Heinz noted that in 2003, BASF spent 7.5% of its total sales on R&D; in 2007, that number will reach 9% to 10%. Heinz noted that most industry players are in fact scaling back research, and only two or three have shown a strong commitment to new product development. While many have seen herbicides as a dead-end due to the ubiquity of glyphosate, Markus Heldt, group vice president, North America for BASF, showed that growing resistance problems in major markets are actually making herbicide innovation and resistance management strategies major opportunity areas. He added that BASF is committing 21% of its research capacity on herbicides, with 33% on fungicides, 39% on insecticides, and the remainder on various segments.
     
  • Full Pipeline – BASF has several new products in launch phases or early stages of development. Those in early launch include four fungicides targeting cereals, soya, specialty crops, and non-crop uses; three herbicides targeting cereals and maize; and one insecticide for non-crop use. The peak sales potential of these products is nearly US $1.5 billion, with an additional US $125 million coming from an additional new fungicide. In the early stages of development, the company has two fungicides for cereals, rice, specialty crops, and non-crop uses; two herbicides for maize and non-crop uses; one herbicide tolerance trait for soya; and two insecticides for specialty crops and non-crop uses. These products are expected to have peak sales in the area of US $870 million, plus additional sales from a novel insecticide under development.
     
  • Early Returns – BASF has had good acceptance of its Boscalid fungicide. North American and European growers have taken to it, and registrations are now available in more than 40 countries on over 100 crops. F 500 fungicide has proven its plant health benefits and profitable yield and quality returns, according to Heinz. In 2005, F 500-based products went near US $500 million in sales. Further down the road (2009/10), BASF plans to launch new F 600 fungicide technology that complements currently available technologies and provides a resistance management tool. Another pending launch is metaflumizone insecticide, which may be available as soon as September or December in the US on vegetables, potatoes, cotton, and in fire ant baits.
     
  • Biofuel Ready – Like everyone, BASF has its eyes set on renewable energy markets. Heinz noted that the company currently offers several products suited to biofuel crops, including imazapic (H) and fipronil (I) for sugar cane, with new products in development; DMTA (H) and fipronil (I) in maize, with F 500 (F) launching and new products being developed; epoxiconazole (F) and fipronil (I) in soya, with F 500 (F) and new products in development; and metconazole (F) and metazachlor (H) in canola, with Boscalid and new products in development on that front.
     

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