The third-largest producer of agricultural chemicals, German-based BASF “is not backed into a corner” by the wave of mergers among the world’s largest seed and agricultural-chemical companies, says deputy chief executive Martin Brudermueller. During a news conference, the executive said BASF’s crop-chemical business was highly profitable, reported Reuters.
Along with its prominent role in agricultural chemicals, BASF has the largest sales volume of any company making industrial chemicals. All the same, its 7-percent share of the pesticide and seed market would be dwarfed by the proposed Bayer-Monsanto, Dow-DuPont and Syngenta-ChemChina mergers.
BASF has focused on crop chemicals and, while active in agricultural biotechnology, it relies on partners to bring new seed strains to market, said Reuters.