Booming Brazil Powers CropScience Sales
31 October 2013 
Bayer CropScience said Brazil helped power its sales gains in the quarter on booming demand for insecticides and fungicides.
Sales in Bayer’s agriculture business rose 4.3%, easily outperforming its other divisions, MaterialScience and Life Sciences, to $1.32 billion. “This increase was mainly due to the good development of our crop protection products. Our business benefited from a continuing favorable market environment and a good start to the season in Latin America,” Chairman Dr. Marijn Dekkers said.
Insecticides and fungicides were particularly robust, recording sales gains of 28.2% and 24.7%, respectively, Bayer said. Herbicides edged up 1.9%, while seed treatment product sales were flat with a year earlier. However, its seeds business plummeted 30.2%, “largely the result of reduced canola and cotton acreages in North America, which also led to higher product returns.”
The temporary ban on neonicotinoids in Europe hurt its SeedGrowth division, which comprises seed treatment products. That business posted $412 million in sales in the period, flat with a year ago.
On surging demand in Brazil, CropScience posted its largest gains in the Latin America/Africa/Middle East region at 31.3% adjusted for foreign currency exchange rates. The Asia/Pacific region increased 10.8% on fungicide demand, helped by a “significant increase” in crop protection sales in India. Sales in Europe were flat with a year ago, while business in North America fell 6.5% adjusted for foreign currency exchange rates, mainly due to seeds.
Dekkers noted that products that have been approved since 2006 grew 35% from a year ago. CropScience expects a combined peak sales potential of at least $5.4 billion for products with estimated launch dates between 2011 and 2016.
Looking ahead, Bayer raised its 2013 forecast for CropScience. It expects growth to outpace the market, with sales increasing by a high-single-digit percentage toward $12.2 billion. EBITDA before special items is planned to rise by at least 10%, compared with its earlier view of a high-single-digit percentage gain.
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