住友在智利成立分销控股公司

自 1990 年代以来，总部位于东京的住友一直通过其当地公司在南美洲安第斯山脉地区从事作物保护分销。 2001 年和 2014 年，Summit Agro Argentina SA 和 Summit Agro Chile SpA 分别先于其他 3 个国家（哥伦比亚、厄瓜多尔和秘鲁）成立，住友当地公司在这三个国家开展作物保护分销。

由尾崎英夫领导的SASA成立的目的是通过新成立SASA的子公司以及同时在哥伦比亚、厄瓜多尔和秘鲁的分支机构，将上述五个国家的所有业务置于SASA的管辖范围内。在这一理念下，Summit Agro 的每一家公司都将通过加速在销售、营销和开发领域迄今为止由国家独立开展的合作和调整，寻求新发展和新商业权利的机会。

“SASA will play a role of bringing greater efficiency and sophistication to those alignments and business operations in line with medium- and long-term strategies and encouraging each Summit Agro to share and take advantage of their knowledge and know-how on market characteristics, industrial regulations and legislations,” Sumitomo said.

South America accounts for more than 20% of the world’s market for crop protection products, and the market in the Andes region has seen particularly notable growth, Sumitomo said. Sales in this region came to $2.1 billion in 2014 (5% of crop protection products sales worldwide) and, given the region’s high agricultural production potential stemming from the temperate climate along the Andes and crop diversity, this market should see annual growth rates of 3% to 4% over the long term. “This market is deemed particularly suitable for Japanese crop protection manufacturers, who offer numerous products that are highly effective for a wide range of crops.”

住友的作物保护业务在 1970 年代正式开始，出口日本制造商生产的作物保护产品。在采取向价值链下游发力的战略后，住友商事将分销业务扩展到美洲、欧洲等30多个国家，年销售额已达1000亿日元。