DuPont’s copper fungicide Kocide, used in Canada to manage diseases in bean, potato and assorted hort crops, is set to meet a new maker.
DuPont Crop Protection announced Wednesday it will sell its global copper fungicide business — including its Kocide and ManKocide brands and trademarks and its Houston, Tex.-based copper fungicide plant — to Mitsui and Co. for an undisclosed sum.
DuPont’s only Kocide product available today in Canada is Kocide 2000, registered as a Group M fungicide.
Kocide is approved in Canada to treat early blight and late blight in potatoes. It’s also registered as a seed treatment against common blight, halo blight and bacterial brown spot in dry, edible and succulent beans and as a foliar treatment against common blight and halo blight.
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In tomatoes, Kocide is used against early blight and septoria leaf spot in tomatoes (and bacterial spot in tomato seedlings for transplant), and against bacterial spot in peppers (greenhouse peppers included).
The product is also approved for Canadian use against silvery thread moss on golf courses and lawn bowling greens.
The deal — expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year pending regulatory approvals — would see DuPont continue to sell its Kocide products in the Asia Pacific region for up to five years.
Mitsui said its Mitsui AgriScience International USA arm plans to set up a separate business, Certis Cu LLC, to buy the copper fungicide business assets.
Mitsui is already involved in making and selling Kocide’s active copper ingredient, cupric hydroxide, through its Spiess-Urania business in Germany.
Mitsui bought a controlling stake in Spiess-Urania in 2002 and full control in 2004. The Spiess-Urania copper fungicide brands aren’t registered in Canada.
Through the DuPont deal, Mitsui said it hopes to gain “synergies” between its CCU and Spiess-Urania businesses. — AGCanada.com Network
