The president of Albaugh Brasil, Renato Seraphim, has a bold goal for the division: to reach no less than 25% of the Group's worldwide revenue by 2020. Albaugh has been in Brazil since 2005 with the Atanor brand, and after acquiring Consagro (in 2015 ), in August last year announced the change of name to align with the world headquarters.
“The Brazilian crop protection market is the largest in the world, and Albaugh Brasil currently represents 12% of the group's revenue, and in 2015 it represented only 7%. As it is the largest market in the world, we are confident that in 4 years we will represent ¼ of the group's sales”, stated the executive in an interview with Portal Global Agrochemicals in which he reveals Albaugh's challenges in Brazil.
Seraphim states that the Atanor and Consagro merger was one of the biggest cases of merger in the agro market, as there was growth of 53% in a market that declined 1%: “we went from 0.9% of share to 1.5%. In addition to reinforcing the team with several experienced professionals sought after by the market who believed that we could build a company focused on farmers.”
Albaugh Brasil produces around 30 products including Herbicides, Fungicides and Insecticides, with announced investments of R$ 300 million in 2016 for the production of copper, glyphosate and 2,4-D. “Our objective in Brazil is to return to producing these different types of formulations. For 2018 our focus is to have WP and CS formulations”, he adds.
“Over the next 5 years, we will have more than 20 launches, with products brought from China and formulated by local partners and also produced within Resende/RJ [own factory]. We want to be a company focused on post-patent products and be as efficient as possible within our operations to deliver products to farmers that can help them increase their profitability”, explains Seraphim.
The president of Albaugh Brasil reveals concern about the price levels practiced this year, but believes that the agrochemicals market will grow again in 2017: “Our estimates are that it will return to the levels of US$ 10 billion, due to the reduction in stocks of some companies and also due to the recovery in prices of some commodities such as sugar and cotton”.
“We have the largest pesticide market in the world, large factories in Brazil and, if we had less bureaucracy, faster product approvals and greater competitiveness in production, we could generate more jobs and bring more wealth to Brazil. The Agro sector is very competitive and as producers and formulators of agrochemicals we could greatly help Brazil to also be competitive in this area. […] We don’t move as fast as our biggest global competitors, which are the USA. If we learn to see what they are doing, be more humble to learn what is working in other places in the world, we could be much stronger than we are today”, he concludes.
Source: Agrolink