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German chemicals company Bayer has agreed to invest 30 Million Euros in Vapi, Gujarat for development of new agro chemical ingredient manufacturing plant. The new plant will expand the company’s crop science portfolio in India. The products that would be manufactured at the plant will be exported to other countries.
Richard Van Der Merwe, Senior Representative, South Asia, Bayer India, stated, “Innovation is the core part of company’s research and product development. We constantly work of addressing the unmet market needs.” In India, 93% of the revenue is generated from the crop science sector and remainder is generated from healthcare sector. In 2015, the company has registered 489 million euros.
“Though research is the most risky business for specially for seed hybridisation. The research involved in the making of a hybrid seed is a long process that goes on for 12 years and requires huge investment,” he added.
Merwe said, “Our products are high in quality, accessible and environment-friendly. Most of the time we have noted that our products are used in combination with other spurious products which are hazardous in nature. This gives our company a bad name and is one of the biggest concerns for us.”
“The real problem is that farmers, who are not aware that they are using spurious products, are more likely to buy it as they are cheaper. We have set up an internal team to track spurious products in the market. To tackle this, we do require the Central and state government support. We have the same concerns in Russia, South Africa and other countries,” he added.
Talking about the challenges, van der Merwe said, “There is a growing need for food, feed and renewable resources. By the year 2050, we will need a 50 per cent increase in food production to feed the growing population.” “We have the solution of a customised approach tailored to customer requirements. We work with the customer from seed till it reaches the shelf,” he added.
In the year 2015, the group invested 1,089 million euros for crop science. Its research and development (R&D) staff strength stood at 5,073. The group has 1,15,176 employees, an annual revenue of 46.3 billion and 307 subsidiaries. The current R&D expenditure amounts to 4.3 billion euros.