Strategic partners
Chemtura Corporation is a U.S. based specialty chemicals company and one of the largest producers and marketers of plastic additives in the world with 2008 sales of $3.6 billion. It was formed in 2005 from the merger of CromptonCorporation and Great Lakes Chemical Corporation and its history reflects more than 100 years of growth and innovation.
Chemtura’s crop protection business focuses on worldwide niche markets and its agricultural products help increase crop quality and crop yield around the world. As a shareholder of Certis Europe, Chemtura has built a partnership over a number of years, which has provided the company with on-the-ground market knowledge and distribution in Europe and with better access to the market and the end-user. This has enabled it to react to the needs of growers in terms of both formulations and technical support.
Many of its compounds fit well with the Certis corporate philosophy of offering speciality products to growers in high value crop sectors. They contribute to the broad portfolio of products Certis Europe now offers to its strategic European markets, including seed treatments, growth regulators, insecticides, miticides and soil treatments.
Nippon Soda, a major global chemicals corporation with sales of $1.6 billion in 2008, is also a shareholder in Certis Europe. Since entering the agrochemical field in the 1950s, the Company has distributed a variety of safe and effective agricultural chemicals.
While the use of generic agrochemicals is growing worldwide, and the environmental burdens of using agrochemicals must be reduced to make their use sustainable, the Nippon Soda group is conducting research and development aimed at creating special horticultural and farming agrochemicals that only use small amounts of active ingredients.
It continues to invest in R & D and to work on new product development in this field, including the broad spectrum fungicide Topsin (thiophanate methyl) and the acaricide Nissorun (hexythiazox). Together with other recent product introductions in Europe through Certis, acetamiprid, a neonicotinoid insecticide, and cyflufenamid, a fungicide for powdery mildew, these are valuable additions to the Certis portfolio.
Kumiai Chemical Industry Co. Ltd is an R & D chemical company, with its own Life Science Research Institute. Established over 60 years ago in Japan, it still aims to live up to its corporate motto "to protect and foster life and nature through creative science" and works to create new and unique crop protection products that meet farmers' and growers' needs and which contribute to a stable supply of food production globally. Reported sales in 2009 were $433 million.
Its activities started at a time when the agricultural industry entered a new era as a modern chemical industry and the corporate history of Kumiai Chemical reflects the history of the development of the agricultural industry in Japan.
As part of its global operation, the company has enjoyed a close partnership with Certis Europe for many years and is now a shareholder. Certis has been responsible for the development and commercialisation of Kumiai's mepanipyrim (Frupica / Japica) and benthiavalicarb (Valbon) for various European markets. The shareholding represents an important step towards further collaboration in Europe which will enable Kumiai to expand its product and service offering in the European crop protection market.