NEWS
NON-CROP IN THE NEWS
Industry Meetings – Hot air and sideshows or a 
COMPANIES
n Monsanto has acquired Brazilian
valued communication arena?
n Arysta LifeScience has agreed to
maize seed company Agroeste
As I look at my diary for the next few months, it is clear
acquire the Mexican horticultural input
Sementes for just over $100 million. The
that we have arrived at the season of trade shows
supplier Grupo Bioquímico Mexicano.
acquisition covers 100% of Agroeste’s
and conferences. Each year the diary fills up earlier
The company is the leading Mexican
businesses including its maize seed
with more and more overlapping and competing events, each with a compelling
manufacturer and marketer of inputs
brands. Agroeste supplies farmers
reason to attend. I even admit to contributing to this through involvement in the
for the fruit and vegetable market,
throughout Brazil and its seed is used
according to Arysta, and generated sales
on about 10% of the country’s maize
organisation of both the PestBusiness.com seminar and the CEPA European Pest
d that the low cost airlines and the hotel bars
of around $40 million in 2006.
area, Monsanto says.
Management Day event. It can be sai
are the only organisations to gain from the conference and event season. So is it all
hot air and sideshows or do these events perform a service to the often fragmented
n Makhteshim-Agan Industries’
n Dow AgroSciences and the US
non crop industries as a valued opportunity to communicate and educate. For
subsidiary, Makhteshim-Agan North
genomics company, Exelixis Plant
many, these events offer the chance to network with colleagues, time to meet
America (MANA), is to become the
Sciences, have entered into a research
new contacts and renew valued friendships. This is maybe where the hotel bar is
primary distributor of the cotton
collaboration on gene discovery and
the winner! Despite my comment above about flying, these events can present
herbicide Cotoran (fluometuron) in
the validation of novel crop traits. Dow
an excellent opportunity to meet with many clients in a short period of time and
the US following its divestment by
has also purchased certain intellectual
actually reduce the need to fly from country to country for individual meetings,
DuPont. Under the deal, MANA takes
property and physical assets used for
maybe not so good for the airlines. For a senior manager or company director,
over DuPont’s registrations, regulatory
crop trait discovery.
often internally focused on head office politics, these events can offer an important
data, trademark rights and inventories
opportunity to support commercial staff in their relationships with their customers
for Cotoran.
n Bayer’s sales from active ingredients
and, by walking the floor, get a feeling of the real buzz of the market environment.
launched since 2000 accounted for
I have stated before in this column that I believe that the pest management n Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences
over a quarter of its crop protection
technician is probably the most trained operator in handling pesticides, this training have reached a global agreement on
sales in the first six months of 2007.
is an increasingly important part of many event programmes. From the multitude of the introduction of genetically modified
The company is “confident” that it will
education sessions run at the NPMA Pest World event in the USA to the Continuous maize with eight introduced genes for
achieve peak sales of €2,000 million
Professional Development (CPD) points awarded by AEPMA to its conference pest resistance and herbicide tolerance.
($2,760 million) for its “current” launch
delegates in Australia on presentation of their bar coded badge, education is the Both companies will market the maize
programme covering active ingredients
cornerstone to raising professional industry standards. It is at these events that we under the SmartStax brand, with
introduced to the market in 2000–11.
learn from our peers, university professors and specialist consultants, who willingly commercialisation expected by the end
share their skills, experience and knowledge in open forum. of the decade.
For many companies in emerging markets this interchange is critical to
professional development. This reality can be no better endorsed than by two
n German agrochemical producer
recent events in emerging European markets. The Parasitec event in Bucharest, is
Stähler has acquired the herbicide
the first non crop event for the Romanian market and HiPeCo in Warsaw only the
beflubutamid from Japanese chemical
second such annual event in Poland. Both brave ventures by emerging markets
company Ube Industries. The deal
with a desire to learn. It is important that their small voice is heard amongst
covers global development and
the crowded industry timetable. If we cannot share our knowledge, skills and
marketing rights, and the EU approval
experience with these markets how can we expect them to aspire and deliver to the
data package for the active ingredient.
n Bayer CropScience has agreed a bi-
high standards that we set for our global industries.
party deal with the Innovative Vector
n Belgian biotechnology company
Control Consortium on two projects to
Consider this alongside the reality that many companies involved within non crop
Devgen has agreed to acquire certain
study new solutions against insects that
industries are small, often family businesses, where interaction day to day is within
seed assets from Monsanto in India,
spread malaria and other vector-borne
small, often insular teams, they do not have the opportunity available to those
Pakistan and the Philippines for
diseases. The first project aims to find a
working in national and international corporations for interaction between colleagues
$26 million. The acquisition covers
long-lasting remedy for indoor residual
on a national or even international level. Maybe this is where the true value of these
Monsanto’s hybrid rice, sunflower,
spraying for mosquito control. The
events lies, in bringing the quality standards, practice and attitude of the best we
sorghum and pearl millet businesses in
second project seeks to modify active
have to offer to those who have the desire and ability to learn, but not the scale or
the countries.
ingredients to reduce the development
the available resources to make it happen - yet. Supporting and enabling these
of resistance in mosquitoes.
companies and markets is true leadership and commitment to our industry.
rob@xenexassociates.com
n Monsanto sees considerable
www.xenexassociates.com
opportunities for stacked versions of
Xenex Associates are a UK based, international company providing strategic and
genetically modified insect-resistant
commercial services to a broad range of companies and organisations in non crop
and herbicide-tolerant maize and
markets. They are partners in PestBusiness.com.
soybeans in Argentina and Brazil. The
www.agrow.com  •   November 2007 
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