Bayer

The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission ought to collaborate in their review of two major mergers that affect the seed and ag chemical supply, said Senate Judiciary chairman Charles Grassley in a letter to regulators. "It is important that these transactions are not reviewed in isolation," wrote Grassley, noting that different regulators are handling each of the mergers, Dow-DuPont and ChemChina-Syngenta.

An EPA appeals board that oversees pesticide regulation upheld cancellation of U.S. use of the insecticide flubendiamide, made by Bayer and sold under the brand name Belt, said Agri-Pulse.

In a decision that removed a roadblock to adoption of a new genetically engineered soybean variety, the European Commission approved import of the Monsanto soybean that is resistant to two types of weedkillers, said Reuters. The soybean went on sale in the United States and Canada this year surrounded by questions about whether there was a market for it.

Bayer upped its bid to buy Monsanto to $65 billion in a move to create the world’s largest supplier of crop seeds and chemicals, says The Wall Street Journal. The proposed merger is part of a wave of consolidation in the seed and agricultural chemical industry, including the Dow-DuPont merger and the purchase of Syngenta by state-owned ChemChina.

Two of the largest seed and agricultural chemical companies in the world, DuPont and Bayer, are among five partners in a $15 million accelerator fund to back early-stage agricultural technology companies, says Reuters. The new fund, called Radicle, joins a crowd of investors "hoping to profit from ever more sophisticated tools in the food supply chain, from plant genomics and seed traits, to drones and weather sensors for crops," it said.

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.

The European Commission’s plan to temporarily extend the glyphosate sales license was thwarted Monday when France, Germany, and Italy abstained from voting on the proposal, leaving the commission short of the requisite population threshold for approval, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The Justice Department should block the Dow-DuPont merger, which would create the largest seed and ag chemical company in the world, because it would unduly reduce competition in the sector, say a trio of legal, farm and consumer groups. The merger is part of a wave of consolidations that would turn the world's six biggest seed and ag chemical companies — Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, DuPont, Dow and BASF — into "a Big 4, dominated by a Monsanto-Bayer and Dow-DuPont duopoly," said the groups in a letter to regulators.

Monsanto says Bayer isn't offering enough to justify a merger but that it's open to continued talks with the German company. An official at Johns Hopkins' Center for a Livable Future says a merger would "be a real shock to the food system" because of the potential of higher prices to farmers for seeds and agricultural chemicals in a sector undergoing consolidation, reported Marketwatch.

Three big mergers among the world's largest seed and agricultural chemical companies are under way or proposed — Bayer and Monsanto, ChemChina and Syngenta, and Dow and DuPont — creating concerns among growers of fewer choices and higher prices when they go shopping. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told Harvest Public Media, “I’m not going to respond directly to particular business transactions."

Best known as a pharmaceutical company, Bayer may be considering a takeover bid for Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, in a consolidation wave that Monsanto inaugurated but did not consummate a year ago, said USA Today. Bayer has a large seed and crop-protection portfolio.

The German pharmaceutical and chemical company, Bayer, recently declined when the EPA requested that the company pull the pesticide flubendiamide off of shelves.

Monsanto and competitors such as Bayer and Syngenta are investigating genetic sprays that can temporarily turn off the activity of any gene through a technology called RNA interference, says MIT Technology Review.

If Monsanto pulls off a merger with Syngenta, a leader in one of the remaining major agrochemical companies expects an industry-wide overhaul of strategy, said Bloomberg.