Albaugh Investing $300M in Brazil Expansion

Iowa-based agrichemical company, Albaugh, announced it is investing $300 million to fund the expansion of its operations in the Brazilian market.

Although it has had a presence in Brazil since 2005 under the Atanor brand, Albaugh is overhauling its manufacturing and commercialization activities with the goal of increasing the company’s revenue from Brazil from its current $180 million to $500 million by 2021, and to increase its market share from 9% to 25% over the same time period.

In September of last year the company announced the acquisition of Consagro Agroquimica Ltda. from FMC Corporation for an undisclosed amount.

We have identified Brazil as a key growth market for us in the future,” Kurt Pedersen Kaalund, CEO of Albaugh said at the time in a company statement. “We enjoy a good business in Brazil today based on a limited portfolio, and a number of new products are in development with planned introductions in the next few years. The addition of a very interesting range of products from Consagro will allow us to speed up our growth in Brazil considerably.”

The deal for Consagro, which closed in January 2016, brought with it a factory in Resende, Rio de Janeiro with the capacity to produce 10,000 tons of copper-based fungicides and 54,000 liters of herbicides per year according to AgroPages, and by the end of 2016 the company plans to expand its portfolio of products based on 20 active ingredients to 26 active ingredients including new biological products and seed treatments.

“We will focus on soybeans and corn crops in our portfolio. We are strong in the southern region, but we have to increase our business in the Cerrado region,” said Renato Seraphin the president of Albaugh in Brazil, reports AgroPages.

Despite signing a licensing agreement with Monsanto in September 2015 allowing Albaugh to produce and sell certain glyphosate formulations in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, the expansion of the company’s product line in Brazil is geared toward a move away from the herbicide.

“Today, companies are expected to reduce their dependency on glyphosate, so we need to diversify our portfolio,” said Seraphin,