A crop insecticide well known for its uses in cereal, corn, canola, forage, vegetable and fruit crops is under new ownership.
Bayer CropScience announced Tuesday it has finalized a deal to divest itself of the agricultural business for carbaryl insecticide, which it has marketed in 40 countries and has sold across Canada for crop uses under the name Sevin XLR.
The buyer is Phoenix-based chemical, ag chem and fertilizer company Tessenderlo Kerley Inc. (TKI), which gets the insecticide’s "global crop protection assets" including "trade names, knowhow, registrations and registration data," for an undisclosed sum.
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Bayer will keep carbaryl’s global turf and ornamental business uses and said it will market the product to those sectors through its Bayer Environmental Science business.
Bayer CropScience said Tuesday it will be responsible to "reconcile and service" any current Sevin XLR inventory growers may now have in storage.
TKI, meanwhile, will contact growers "very soon" with more information on how the Sevin XLR crop business will be handled in the future, Bayer said.
Bayer CropScience said the sale is part of its "global commitment… to focus resources on strategic growth areas and innovation."
TKI, on the other hand, is "committed to expanding its crop protection portfolio" and plans to keep building its own crop protection business, NovaSource, "with the addition of strategic products as they become available," TKI CEO Jordan Burns said in a separate release.
TKI, a subsidiary of Belgium’s Tessenderlo Group, said it expects the carbaryl ag business worldwide to boost its revenues by about US$19 million per year.
