In recent years, the agrochemical landscape has evolved into a series of mergers and acquisitions as part of an overarching industry realignment. This agrochemical market shift has resulted in a significant reshuffling of assets and products, as the traditional “Big Six” agrochemical manufacturers consolidate to address earnings, costs, and innovation requirements. Changes to the established agricultural line-up of Syngenta, Bayer, BASF, Dow, DuPont, and Monsanto has created a new market landscape and new opportunities for external custom manufacturers.

Recent Significant Changes in the Agrochemical Sector

Environmentally responsible herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides are necessary to improve crop yields and disease control for family and commercial farmers that support a global population currently estimated to reach about 9 billion by 2050. The “new” agrochemical lineup is at the forefront of the innovation and development of environmentally responsible agrochemicals to address the anticipated rise in global food demand.

Here is how the agrochemical sector has changed to reflect these ongoing concerns:

• Bayer closed their acquisition of Monsanto in June 2018 becoming the new number one agrochemical manufacturer with approximately $27 billion in annual sales;
• China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina) acquired Syngenta in 2017 and the ‘new’ Syngenta became number two with approximately $17 billion in sales;
• Dow and DuPont’s merger of their respective agro businesses created Corteva Agriscience which currently ranks number three at approximately $17 billion in sales. Corteva Agriscience will become a standalone business in 2019;
• BASF announced the acquisition of certain agricultural assets of Bayer throughout 2017 and 2018 to become number four at approximately $7 billion in sales;
• FMC is the new number five with approximately $4 billion in sales having acquired assets and a new product pipeline from DuPont as a part of the formation of Corteva Agriscience.

Agricultural companies optimize product portfolio manufacturing via the utilization of external fine chemical custom manufacturers. The complex synthesis of intermediate and active ingredients requires a wide variety of chemistries and unit operations that smaller, well-equipped service providers can deliver and, in many cases, at an improved cost position. As the agrochemical industry consolidates, reliance upon these external partners intensifies and helps secure their role within the agricultural supply chain.

Agrochemical Services from JAYHAWK

JAYHAWK is a leading custom chemical manufacturer with extensive experience in the synthesis of chemical building blocks, active ingredients, and intermediates for a range of environmentally responsible agrochemical products. If you would like detailed information about external manufacturing arrangements with JAYHAWK or our custom manufacturing services, please do not hesitate to contact us.