www.czu.cz ; www.raupp.info

Two of Germany?s chemicals giants have given a big vote of confidence to
biotechnology within the agricultural sector, September 2004 by Patricia l.
Short .

Hans W. Reiners, president of BASF?s agricultural products division, told
a recent media briefing in Limburgerhof, Germany, that ?2004 as a whole is
going to be a successful year? for the unit. The division is aiming to show
an operating profit of 25% by either next year or 2006; it already raised
the figure to 21% last year, up from 16% in 2002. Reiners said the division
will be aided by its research pipeline, which holds a growth potential of
$1.8 billion per year.

The group?expanded in the past couple of years through the acquisitions of
divisions of American Home Products and Bayer?is reducing the number of
active ingredients it sells from 300 in 2001 to fewer than 100; it currently
has about 170 actives. Recent product line divestitures will have taken out
sales of about $120 million this year, Reiners said.

The company has already opted to close its ag operations in Mount Olive,
N.J., splitting that work between sites in Raleigh, N.C., and Ludwigshafen,
Germany. And it is weighing how to restructure its sites elsewhere,
including in Brazil.

Separately, Bayer inaugurated a new $20 million plant biotechnology
innovation center in Gent, Belgium, the largest and most modern research
facility of its bioscience group. The center marks an important milestone in
Bayer?s plant biotechnology strategy, said Friedrich Berschauer, chairman of
Bayer CropScience.

?Through the use of plant biotechnology and modern breeding, plants will be
enhanced to increase the quantity and quality of food, feed, and fiber to
the benefit of farmers, consumers, the industry, and the environment,? he
said. By the end of this year, the bioscience unit will have invested about
$100 million in R&D to support products in its pipeline.

[pubs.acs.org]

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