Crop Protection - Overview

Best in its Class

With its four Business Units Insecticides, Herbicides, Fungicides and Seed Treatment, the Business Group Crop Protection is well equipped to fulfill the needs of its farmer customers.

Number one in insecticides

Bayer CropScience is the world's leading insecticide company. Its strong 20 percent market share in 2002 underlines this position. The insecticides portfolio is composed of 35 active ingredients, the top five being imidacloprid (Confidor®, Gaucho®, Premise®), aldicarb (Temik®), deltamethrin (Decis®), endosulfan (Thiodan®), and methamidofos (Tamaron®). These products contribute 45 percent of total turnover in the foliar and soil insecticide businesses. Imidacloprid and deltamethrin are also significant contributors to the success of the Seed Treatment and Environmental Science businesses.

The key objectives are to lead market innovation by anticipating the future needs of customers and stakeholders and to maintain core commercial products by implementation of world-class stewardship and life-cycle management programs, in line with the strict safe use, product stewardship and environmental protection policies of Bayer CropScience. The pipeline of development products is well filled and the company expects to launch six new insecticides on the market over the next ten years.

Top in weed control

In the global herbicides market, Bayer CropScience ranks No. 3. Its key markets are the US, Brazil, Japan, Canada, France and Germany. Bayer CropScience's herbicide product range is well diversified across crops, regions and market segments. The top five active ingredients are fenoxaprop (Puma®), glufosinate (Basta®, Liberty®), bromoxynil (Buctril®), isoxaflutole (Balance®), and desmedipham/phenmedipham (the “Betanal® family” for sugar beet). Three new active ingredients – mesosulfuron (mesomaxx®, Atlantis®), propoxycarbazone (Attribut®), and foramsulfuron (MaisTer®) – have now reached the market and will further strengthen the company’s leading position in cereal herbicides and its emerging position in corn.

The herbicide research pipeline is rated as the most fertile in the industry. The target to introduce one new active ingredient per year is challenging but realistic. Classical research is optimally complemented by new activities in biotechnology and safener discovery and development. Safeners are additives that accentuate the fine differentiation between crops and weeds by boosting herbicide selectivity through improved crop safety.

High quality yields

Bayer CropScience is one of the leading fungicide producing companies in the world. With a market share of just over 20 percent it ranks second behind the market leader. The global fungicide portfolio comprises 25 active ingredients. The top five are tebuconazole (Folicur®), trifloxystrobin (Flint®), fosetyl-Al (Aliette®), iprodione (Rovral®) and propineb (Antracol®).

Bayer CropScience provides a wide range of fungicides, both innovative and proven, whose different modes of action offer customers tailor-made solutions for a broad range of conditions and needs. The global development pipeline for new fungicides is well filled and is expected to be able to launch five products on the market over the next seven years.

Seed Treatment

The Bayer CropScience seed treatment portfolio covers more than 15 active ingredients. Special focus is given to the coordination of the global relationships between Bayer CropScience and the major seed companies which are key customers for the seed treatment products.

The Seed Treatment Application Center (Monheim) provides both country organizations and customers with expert application and machinery support. Based near Paris, France, another Bayer company unit named Cérès provides mainly sugar beet seed companies with a pelleting and toll formulation service and specialist application technology support for the seed treatment products.

The key products are the insecticide imidacloprid (Gaucho®) and the fungicides tebuconazole (Raxil®), triadimenol (Baytan®) and fluquinconazole (Jockey®). A recent innovation has been the advent of imidacloprid + tebuconazole (Hombre®) and imidacloprid + triadimenol (Zorro®) which gives protection from a range of cereal diseases and aphids in the one convenient formulation. Imidacloprid + thiodicarb (Amparo®) is a new seed treatment for the cotton industry and provides early season thrips and aphid control. Novel fungicides and insecticides are in the development pipeline and will provide the basis for continued business growth.