Avireo is a pre-seed/pre-emergent herbicide combining Group 27 and Group 14 active ingredients. FMC promotes it as the first product of its kind in Western Canada.

Avireo targets such broadleaf weeds like Group 2, 4 and 9 herbicide-resistant kochia, Group 2 and 4 herbicide-resistant cleavers, volunteer canola and others.

Barricade III is a post-emergent herbicide with a higher-than-normal rate of fluroxypyr for enhanced control of kochia and other troublesome broadleaf weeds.

Also claiming kochia control is PrecisionPac CF-18-878 Pro. FMC says the burnoff blend provides extended control of more than 50 broadleaf weed species, among them kochia, narrow-leaved hawk’s-beard, Russian thistle and volunteer canola. It features four modes of action when mixed with glyphosate.

Express FT is also marketed for kochia control and others like cleavers and dandelions.

The three other crop protection products on the company’s 2026 slate include:

• Avoda Pro seed treatment for protection of wheat, barley, oats and rye against seed and soil-borne diseases. Its three active ingredients are tebuconazole, prothioconazoleb and metalaxyl.
• Focus NXT herbicide — a preseed herbicide formulated with spring wheat growers in the black soil zone in mind.
• Optimize FXC DS — a soybean innoculant meant to help support early nodulation and crop establishment.

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In many cases weeds are developing resistance against multiple herbicides, scientists said.

Reuters interviewed two dozen farmers, scientists, weed specialists and company executives and reviewed eight academic papers published since 2021 which described how kochia, waterhemp, giant ragweed and other weeds are squeezing out crops in North Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota as chemicals lose their effectiveness.

Over the last two decades, chemical companies have reduced the share of revenue devoted to research and development spending and are introducing fewer products, according to AgbioInvestor, a UK-based firm that analyzes the crop protection sector.

Farmers say their losing battle with weeds threatens grain and oilseed harvests at a time when growers are grappling with inflation and extreme weather linked to climate change.

“We’re in for big problems over the next 10 years for sure,” said Ian Heap, director of the International Survey of Herbicide Resistant Weeds, a group of scientists in over 80 countries that maintains a global database. “We are in for a real shake-up.”

The database records reduced effectiveness for glyphosate, one of the most common herbicides, against 361 weed species, including 180 in the U.S., affecting corn, soy, sugar beets and other crops.

Some 21 weed species globally showed resistance to dicamba, the most recent major U.S. chemical, which launched in 2017.

Environmental groups argue that farmers should embrace natural weed-control methods instead of chemicals.

Kochia, which spreads as many as 30,000 seeds per plant, can cut yields by up to 70 per cent if left unchecked, according to Take Action, a farmer resource program of the United Soybean Board.

Other factors, including the development of more robust seeds, have pushed overall global crop yields higher. But scientists expect weed problems to worsen, with some weeds showing resistance to chemicals even on first exposure.

‘Really scary’

In Douglas, North Dakota, farmer Bob Finken sprayed dicamba and glyphosate to kill late-season weeds. Neither product eliminated kochia.

“That was really scary,” said Finken, 64. “Each year seems to get a little worse.”

Finken was forced to clear the weeds with harvesting equipment, which risks clogging expensive machinery.

Other farmers are hiring workers to pull weeds by hand, said Sarah Lovas, an agronomist with GK Technology, a precision agriculture firm.

North Dakota was the largest spring wheat producing state in 2023 and ninth-biggest soybean grower.

Five of North Dakota’s 53 counties have confirmed populations of dicamba-resistant kochia, a year after it was first reported in the state, North Dakota State University weed specialist Joe Ikley said.

“It’s just a matter of time before it hits your farm,” said Monte Peterson, 65, who grows soybeans near Valley City, North Dakota.

Lab scale-back

Chemical producers Bayer, Corteva and FMC FMC.N say longer development and regulatory processes have constrained new products to combat weed resistance. Industry executives say regulators have become more stringent about environmental and health impacts.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said standards for approving new herbicides have not substantially changed since 1996. However, the EPA said recent efforts to assess the impact of new active ingredients on threatened plants and wildlife have delayed some decisions.

The EPA did not estimate the increased processing time. The agency said it expedites reviews of lower-risk products.

Farm chemical companies spent 6.2 per cent of sales revenue on development of new active ingredients in 2020, down from 8.9 per cent in 2000, AgbioInvestor said. Its data showed the introduction of new active ingredients fell by more than half in 2022 from 2000.

Instead, companies have expanded uses of existing products like dicamba, glufosinate and 2,4-D.

FMC plans the 2026 launch of an herbicide to kill grassy weeds in rice crops based on the industry’s first new mode of action, a term for the way a chemical kills a weed, in three decades.

The herbicide was in development for 11 years. FMC hopes it will generate $400 million in sales within a decade, a fraction of the roughly $8 billion global glyphosate market.

“If we don’t keep developing the new products, we are going to run into a wall where growers don’t have the tools to combat the pests,” CEO Mark Douglas said. “And then ultimately you face food security issues.”

The world’s biggest agriculture chemical and seed company, Germany’s Bayer, hopes to produce its first new mode of action herbicide in over 30 years by 2028.

“We’re really desperate for (new modes of action) if we’re going to sustain uses for farmers,” said Bob Reiter, head of research and development for Bayer’s crop science division.

Two decades ago, companies commercialized a product for every 50,000 candidates, but it now takes 100,000 to 150,000 attempts, Reiter said.

U.S.-based Corteva said it has incorporated sustainability criteria, such as reduced groundwater risk, in its research and development, aiming to clear the path with regulators.

It hopes that approach will shorten the regulatory process when it introduces a fungicide with a new mode of action against Asian soybean rust disease in Brazil around 2027, said Ramnath Subramanian, vice-president of crop protection research and development. He did not say how much shorter the process may be.

Bill Freese, scientific director of the Center for Food Safety in Washington, said farmers should shift away from crops genetically engineered to tolerate herbicides, which lead to plants becoming resistant to multiple chemicals through repeated sprayings.

“It’s like this toxic spiral,” Freese said. “There’s no end in sight.”

–Reporting for Reuters by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Tom Polansek in Chicago.

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A slowdown in demand for herbicide and pesticides as well as excess inventories had resulted in large destocking in South America, denting the U.S.-based company’s earnings for much of the year.

The company also provided its preliminary 2024 revenue forecast on Thursday. FMC expects revenue in the range of $4.65 billion to $4.85 billion, compared with analysts’ estimate of $4.7 billion, according to LSEG data (all figures US$).

FMC expects 2026 revenue between $5.5 billion and $6 billion.

“As the company launches and ramps up new products, we see a clear path for adjusted EBITDA margins to recover to the mid-20% level, after falling to the low-20% level this year,” Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein had said in a note.

— Reporting for Reuters by Sourasis Bose in Bangalore.

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“Towards the end of May, we experienced unforeseen and unprecedented volume declines in three out of our four operating regions, as our channel partners rapidly reduced inventory levels,” CEO Mark Douglas said in a statement.

The regions hit were North America, Latin America, and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

The stock, down over 23 per cent this year, was trading 8.4 per cent lower at $95.45 in morning trade (all figures US$).

The company reduced its full-year revenue forecast range to $5.2 billion to $5.4 billion, from $6.08 billion to $6.22 billion.

At midpoint, it also expects second-quarter revenue to be lower by about 30 per cent compared to its previous outlook.

In the prior quarter, FMC’s sales took a hit due to drought in southern Brazil and Argentina, lower demand in EMEA and channel inventory management in India.

Credit Suisse analysts lowered their full-year profit estimate for the company by 14 per cent to $6.57 per share to reflect ongoing inventory destocking.

Philadelphia-based FMC, which sells insecticides and herbicides, added on Monday that its adjusted core profit for the second quarter is expected to be between $185 million and $195 million, nearly 50 per cent down from its earlier expectation.

Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) for the year is now expected to be between $1.3 billion and $1.4 billion, compared with an earlier forecast of $1.5 billion to $1.56 billion.

— Reporting for Reuters by Sourasis Bose in Bangalore.

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But how a farmer plans his or her business — and associated risks — can help lower that statistic.

The report, titled “Healthy Minds, Healthy Farms: Exploring a Connection between Mental Health and Farm Business Management” sought to improve understanding of how business and lifestyles influence a farmer’s mental health.

“The Canadian farming population is more stressed than the rest of the population within Canada, for sure,” said FMC executive director Heather Watson.

Ontario-based Wilton Consulting Group worked with FMC to conduct the study, which found 62 per cent of Canadian farmers are categorized with mid-stress scores and 14 per cent with high stress.

Watson said the report follows other recent studies calling for improved mental health supports for farmers, including one conducted by a parliamentary committee in 2019.

“We’ve kind of always felt that business management practices must be impacted by mental health, in terms of your ability to make decisions, think rationally, handle stress and have coping mechanisms,” she said, noting that was all more anecdotal. “We hadn’t really looked at it from an analytical point of view.

“Throughout the research, we kind of had two sides of the same coin: how does mental health impact farm business’ management, and how does farm business management practices affect mental health?”

Overall, the report indicated 21 per cent of farmers regularly follow a risk management plan, while close to half – 48 per cent – do not.

There is evidence suggesting that should change, as 88 per cent of farmers who reported using a written business plans say it contributed to their peace of mind.

“When they did do a business plan, it seemed to result in doing other business practices as well,” Watson said, noting those same farmers were the ones more likely to use advisors or do budgeting.

Watson said 88 per cent of those who had written business plans could look to those plans as a “guiding light” during difficult times.

“Having business management practices isn’t going to reduce the stresses out there. Stressors are out there, whether it’s the weather or markets or whatever, but it does impact how you react to those stressors,” she said. “We found farmers who had business plans had more positive coping mechanisms.”

‘Stuck in an office’

Those who do not have a written business plan often cite their success without one as the reason why – and the thought of making a plan can be stressful.

“I’m interested to see if the context we find ourselves in today (with COVID-19) might shift that thinking a little bit, because business isn’t very good for the majority of farmers right now and it’s a completely blindsiding situation,” she said, questioning if business plans that included a worse-case scenario contingency plan may have helped farmers now.

The report found some demographic differences, with women and younger farmers
showing signs of higher stress levels. For young people, the study suggests they are generally less effective at coping with stress and less likely to practice business risk management plans.

Business planning “is not something that farmers like to do, or want to do,” Watson said. “It doesn’t resonate with them, they didn’t get into farming to manage people or be crunching numbers stuck in an office, so how do we bridge that gap?”

To better support farmer mental health, FMC says continued awareness on the importance of it is needed alongside support in improving mental health literacy within agricultural circles.

FMC also says it and the broader agriculture community need to deliver business management advice, focusing on risk management literacy as a means to face uncertainty. It also calls for more advocacy to expand farmer-specific mental health support services.

“We’re hoping that a lot of groups will look at these recommendations and actions and say, ‘we’ll do a project on that,” said Watson.

In all, the report had 24 calls to action that resulted from an extensive survey involving 1,735 farmers, 14 focus groups and 72 one-on-one interviews with farmers and industry representatives.

Watson and FMC are hoping the study can be used as a reference during the next round of policy development for agriculture.

— D.C. Fraser reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

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Philadelphia-based FMC Corp. announced Thursday it received the final approval needed, from the Competition Commission of India, to close the deal the company reached with DuPont in late March.

FMC’s deal allows DuPont to shed several of the assets required to meet regulators’ conditions for its own merger with Dow Chemical, which closed Sept. 1.

The deal, an asset swap which will see DuPont get FMC’s health and nutrition business plus US$1.2 billion cash, is now on track to close effective Nov. 1, FMC CEO Pierre Brondeau said in a release.

For Canadian farmers, the deal will see FMC take over DuPont’s portfolio of cereal broadleaf and pre-seed burn-off herbicides in Canada.

The deal also gives FMC the PrecisionPac herbicide dispensing system; DuPont’s experimental farm at Hanley, Sask., south of Saskatoon; a packaging plant in Calgary; and a chemical manufacturing facility at Manati in Puerto Rico.

The Competition Bureau of Canada, which cleared the Dow/DuPont merger in June, noted the deal will also give FMC DuPont’s Stine facility at Newark, Delaware.

The Stine plant, the bureau said, today houses DuPont’s “primary herbicide discovery and development efforts for Canadian markets.”

FMC, which maintains a Canadian office in Saskatoon, is an “acceptable” buyer for the DuPont assets, with “the managerial, operational and financial capability to compete effectively in Canada,” the bureau said in June.

FMC’s Canadian brand portfolio includes Aim, Authority, Command 360 and Focus herbicides, Rovral, Fracture and Fullback fungicides and Pounce, Beleaf and Capture insecticides. — AGCanada.com Network

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The federal antitrust watchdog on Tuesday announced it has an agreement with DuPont and Dow Chemical to head off what would otherwise be “a substantial lessening or prevention of competition” in the Prairie crop protection market.

That means a new owner for DuPont’s Canadian cereal crop broadleaf and pre-seed burnoff herbicide portfolio; the company’s PrecisionPac herbicide dispensing system; its experimental farm at Hanley, Sask., about 55 km south of Saskatoon; and its packaging plant in Calgary.

Those assets, as per the bureau’s agreement, are to be sold to Philadelphia-based chemical company FMC Corp., which already has market space in both Western and Eastern Canada with various herbicide, insecticide and fungicide brands such as Authority, Command, Focus, Pounce and Rovral.

Outside Canada, FMC will also get DuPont’s crop chemical manufacturing plant at Manati in Puerto Rico and its Stine facility at Newark, Delaware, home to DuPont’s “primary herbicide discovery and development efforts for Canadian markets,” the bureau said.

DuPont and FMC had already arranged an asset swap for these DuPont crop protection assets, among others, back in March, following a ruling from European Union regulators for approval of the Dow/DuPont merger. In exchange, DuPont gets the FMC Health and Nutrition business plus US$1.2 billion.

Its deal with DuPont will see FMC’s agricultural business become the world’s fifth-biggest crop protection chemical company by revenue.

Dow and DuPont’s deal with the Competition Bureau will also see Dow sell its global business of ethylene acrylic acid copolymers and ionomers — plastics used in packaging for food, beverages and pharmaceuticals — to SK Global Chemical Co.

Seoul-based SK Global, a petrochemical processor owned by Korea’s SK Group, is “a new entrant” in those markets, the bureau said Tuesday.

The bureau’s review found both FMC and SK Global are “acceptable buyers, as they are likely to compete effectively and support innovation in the sector in Canada.”

“Loss of rivalry”

The bureau said Tuesday its concerns over a Dow/DuPont merger related to the “loss of rivalry between the parties” in broadleaf herbicides for cereal crops and in pre-seed burnoff additives for cereal crops, plus the specialized markets for acid copolymers and ionomers.

In the broadleaf herbicide business, the bureau said its review showed Dow and DuPont are two of the three “principal suppliers,” along with Bayer, of the cereal broadleaf herbicides Prairie farmers use.

“Given the closeness of competition between their products, the bureau determined that the merger of the parties’ portfolios would likely negatively impact competition,” the bureau said, adding those impacts “were unlikely to be effectively constrained by the entry or expansion of new or existing competitors.”

Also, the bureau said, both Dow and DuPont have “innovation efforts directed at expanding and enhancing their respective cereal broadleaf herbicide portfolios.”

Thus, in a merger, “the loss of innovation rivalry would reduce the incentive to innovate and to bring new and more effective products to market in a timely manner.”

Meanwhile in the pre-seed burnoff market, Dow and DuPont, with their PrePass and Express product lines respectively, are “the two leading suppliers of additives for pre-seed burnoff in cereal crops and are long-time rivals,” the bureau said.

Losing that rivalry to a merger “would likely result in higher prices for farmers, leading some to adopt less effective weed management strategies” — and again, without an asset sale, market entry or expansion by “current or future competitors” wouldn’t offset those problems.

“The agreement reached today ensures that consumers and businesses continue to benefit from a dynamic marketplace which offers innovative solutions, increased choice and competitive prices,” John Pecman, Canada’s commissioner of competition, said Tuesday in a release.

Once completed, Dow and DuPont’s merger deal calls for the combined firm to split into three companies: material sciences, specialty products, and seeds/crop protection.

Their US$130 billion all-stock merger has already picked up antitrust approvals in most markets where the companies operate, including the U.S., China, Mexico and Brazil along with the EU. — AGCanada.com Network

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The asset sales required by U.S. antitrust enforcers were similar to what the companies had agreed to give up in a deal they struck with European regulators in March.

The deal is one of several big mergers by farm suppliers, and the antitrust approval was quickly denounced by the head of the U.S. National Farmers Union, saying that farmers would face higher costs. The Justice Department, meanwhile, said the asset sales would prevent price hikes or lost innovation.

Dow and DuPont announced the deal in December 2015 in what was billed as an all-stock merger valued at $130 billion (all figures US$).

According to the filing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the assets to be sold include DuPont’s Finesse herbicide for winter wheat and Rynaxypyr insecticides, which the Justice Department said had U.S. annual sales of more than $100 million.

Rynaxypyr insecticides registered for use in Canada include Coragen, approved for use in cereals, canola, sunflowers and various vegetable crops, and Altacor, used in fruit and tree nut crops. Finesse, a brand not sold in Canada, is a combination of chlorsulfuron and metsulfuron methyl.

DuPont will also sell its U.S. acid copolymers and ionomers business. The products are used to make food packaging and other goods.

The president of the National Farmers Union, Roger Johnson, called the antitrust approval “deeply disappointing.”

“Clearly, the Trump administration is content allowing our country’s consolidation complex to continue,” Johnson said in a statement. “The combination of Dow and DuPont, coupled with other pending mergers… drives up costs for farmers’ inputs, and it reduces the incentive for the remaining agricultural input giants to compete.”

The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission, which share the work of antitrust enforcement, have reviewed or are reviewing no fewer than four deals involving corporate titans that supply U.S. farmers.

In addition to the Dow and DuPont merger deal, Bayer has a deal to buy Monsanto, and ChemChina is purchasing Syngenta. Canadian fertilizer companies PotashCorp and Agrium are also planning a merger.

After Dow completes the merger with DuPont, the companies have said they would split into three separate companies specializing in material sciences, specialty products, and seeds and agrochemicals.

“As originally proposed, the merger would have eliminated important competition between Dow and DuPont in the development and sale of insecticides and herbicides that are vital to American farmers who plant winter wheat and various specialty crops,” acting Assistant Attorney General Andrew Finch said in a statement, adding that the merged company would have also gained a monopoly over ethylene derivatives used to manufacture food packaging and other products.

Finch said the settlement “will preserve vigorous competition.”

Analyst Brett Wong of Piper Jaffrey said he did not foresee another round of consolidation in the agricultural supply business in the near future. “It’s going to take some time for the current dust to settle,” he said.

Dow and DuPont said in a statement on Thursday that the deal would create efficiencies worth $3 billion and growth synergies of $1 billion.

Dow and DuPont have already received clearance to merge from Europe, China and Brazil. They now await approval from just a handful of countries, including Canada and Mexico.

DuPont on Wednesday also noted the waiting period under U.S. federal antitrust law has expired on a related asset swap with FMC Corp.

That deal will allow FMC to buy up part of DuPont’s crop protection business, while DuPont buys “substantially all” of FMC’s health and nutrition business.

The deal with FMC is now expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year, DuPont said, pending completion of the Dow merger and other conditions.

— Diane Bartz reports on antitrust issues for Reuters from Washington, D.C. Includes files from AGCanada.com Network staff.

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Philadelphia-based FMC will focus on increasing sales of crop chemicals developed internally, and avoid big acquisitions for a few years, after it closes a deal this year to swap its health and nutrition business for part of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co.’s crop protection business, Brondeau said in an interview.

The deal, announced in late March, would vault FMC to the world’s No. 5 pesticide maker by sales from eighth-largest in a market where abundant grain production has softened crop prices.

The swap will bring to FMC 15 crop chemicals that DuPont has in development, adding to nine in FMC’s pipeline.

“My objective is we need to be… from an organic growth standpoint, the fastest-growing company in the industry,” Brondeau said. “We believe we can grow today, even if we are at the bottom of the (agriculture) cycle.”

FMC will target mid- to high single-digit annual revenue growth starting in 2018, Brondeau said.

Smaller producers, such as Nufarm and Sumitomo Corp.’s crop chemical business, might need to combine, Brondeau said.

“The big five are going to be so strong that some of these smaller companies are going to have to join forces,” he said.

Demand for crop chemicals has dropped in North America and Europe this year, but is climbing in Asia and Latin America, Brondeau said.

FMC shares hit a nearly three-year high in April following the DuPont deal.

While FMC aims for growth, a proposed U.S. border tax would be “really bad” for the industry, since production of certain chemical ingredients cannot easily move from other countries.

“Somebody is going to have to pay for it,” he said. “It would be U.S. farmers.”

FMC also produces lithium, a commodity in demand for use in electric vehicles.

The company will decide next year how to separate the lithium business, likely by initial public offering or spinoff. Selling it to a single buyer “is a very long shot,” as it would incur high taxes, Brondeau said.

FMC plans to decide by 2018 whether to roughly double lithium carbonate equivalent production in Argentina. Brondeau said there is “very high probability that it will be a go.”

— Rod Nickel is a Reuters correspondent covering the agriculture and mining sectors for Reuters from Winnipeg.

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“We are generally interested in strengthening our business further, acquisitions are part of that, that is very much part of our thinking. But it takes two to tango,” CEO Kurt Bock told journalists on a call after the release of quarterly results on Thursday.

He added deals were even more difficult when a third party in the form of an antitrust regulator posed additional hurdles.

With rivals including Monsanto and Bayer joining forces all around, BASF has been eyeing a surprise foray into generic pesticides and cast an eye on U.S. pesticides peer FMC Corp., sources told Reuters on March 22.

FMC in late March snatched up crop protection businesses put up for sale by DuPont to win European Union approval for its merger with Dow Chemical. These assets had been regarded by analysts as a good fit for BASF.

— Reporting for Reuters by Ludwig Burger.

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