DuPont Co., Wilmington, Del., will shift its focus to farm chemicals that kill insects rather than weeds in the face of shrinking opportunities for herbicides, the head of the company's crop protection business said on Wednesday, Sept. 10.
While the bulk of DuPont's sales remain in weed control, insecticide sales are seeing the fastest growth, said James Borel, vice president and general manager of DuPont's $2 billion seeds and farm chemicals operations, who spoke to Wall Street analysts in a conference call.
"Based on the ... diminishing opportunities in weed control ... our discovery focus had adjusted toward disease and insects," said Borel, who said DuPont researchers are also concentrating on gene regulation and plant growth enhancement.
DuPont, the second-largest U.S. chemicals maker, has seen declining sales
and revenue from farming chemicals as a result of Roundup Ready seeds for
soy, cotton and corn.
However, Borel's speech to Wall Street also showed "that the decline is
over," for DuPont's agricultural chemical sales, said John Roberts, an
analyst with Buckingham Research, who listened in on the call.
Sales of seeds designed to tolerate Roundup are peaking in the United
States, Roberts said. That mean the loss of market share to Roundup will
slow for DuPont's herbicides, and allow the company to offset the erosion
with new products and markets.
For instance, DuPont wants to expand use of its farm chemical indoxacarb in
homes as a pest control for ants, termites and roaches. Indoxacarb is mostly
used in cotton, fruit and vegetable crop protection.
"The professional pest control opportunities are very small today but will
grow relatively significantly over the (next) five years," Borel told
analysts. He estimated current annual sales would double to a peak of about
$200 million in the future.
He also said DuPont's crop protection operations will look at small
acquisitions and licensing deals.
Source: Yahoo! News