Syngenta AG

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Type	Aktiengesellschaft
Traded as	SIX: SYNN NYSE: SYT
Industry	Chemicals
Founded	2000
Headquarters	Basel, Switzerland
Key people	Martin Taylor (Chairman) Michael Mack (CEO)
Products	Seeds, pesticides, flowers
Operating income	US $2.05 billion (2011)[1]
Profit	US $1.6 billion (2011)[1]
Total assets	US $17.24 billion (end 2011)[1]
Total equity	US $7.503 billion (end 2011)[1]
Employees	26,000 (end 2011)[1]
Website	syngenta.com

Syngenta AG is a large global Swiss specialized chemicals company which notably markets seeds and pesticides. Syngenta is involved in biotechnology and genomic research. The company is a leader in crop protection^{[citation needed]}, and ranks third in total sales in the commercial agricultural seeds market. Sales in 2010 were approximately US$ 11.6 billion. Syngenta employs over 26,000 people in over 90 countries. Syngenta is listed on both the Swiss stock exchange and in New York.

History[link]

Based in Basel, Switzerland, Syngenta was formed in 2000 by the merger of Novartis Agribusiness and Zeneca Agrochemicals. Its roots are considerably older.

In 1758 the city’s Johann Rudolf Geigy-Gemuseus began trading in “Materials, Chemicals, Dyes and Drugs of all kinds”. In 1876, Sandoz Laboratories began business in Basel, followed in 1884 by Ciba. These three companies ultimately became Novartis in 1995. Ciba-Geigy, formed in 1971, had concentrated mainly on crop protection in its agro division, Sandoz more on seeds.

A Syngenta works in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire originally owned by ICI.

Zeneca Agrochemicals was part of AstraZeneca, and formerly of Imperial Chemical Industries. ICI was formed in the UK in 1926. Two years later, work began at the Agricultural Research Station at Jealott’s Hill near Bracknell.

In 2004, Syngenta Seeds purchased the North American corn and soybean business of Advanta, as well as Garst and Golden Harvest.

In 2005, Syngenta opposed a Swiss ban on genetically engineered organisms.^[2]

In 2007, Syngenta's Canadian division was named one of Canada's Top 100 Employers, as published in Maclean's magazine, one of only a handful of agribusiness firms to receive this honour.^[3]

On 21 October 2007, a Brazilian peasant organization, the Landless Workers' Movement (Portuguese: Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra - MST), led a group of landless farmers in an occupation of one of the company's seed research farms, in protest against genetically-engineered ("genetically modified") vegetables and in hopes of obtaining land for landless families to cultivate. After the occupation had begun, a group of gunmen arrived in a minibus and attacked the protesters. A security guard was killed, various protesters were wounded, and Valmir Mota de Oliveira, known as Keno, was found dead, "killed execution-style by two shots to the chest" according to some reports "at the centre of a bitter dispute".^[4]

Protesters and sympathizers (including Sarah Wilson, of Christian Aid) claimed that the gunmen were under orders of Syngenta to kill the occupiers, but the company says that the guards of the security company they contracted were not allowed to carry guns. The MST claimed further that NF Security was a front company controlled by rural producer organizations linked to the agribusiness. Amnesty International expressed concern, and said that threats and intimidation by gunmen hired by landowners and agricultural companies are a common occurrence in Paraná.^[4]

The police investigation completed in February 2008 implicated MST members and employees of NF Security but not Syngenta.^[5]

The Civil Court of Cascavel granted an order for the repossession of the site on December 20, 2007. On June 12, 2008, the remaining MST members left the Santa Teresa site they had been occupying.^[6] On October 14, 2008, Syngenta announced donation of the 123-hectare station to the Agronomy Institute of Paraná (IAPAR). IAPAR will use the site for research into biodiversity, recovery of degraded areas and agriculture production systems, as well as environmental education programs.^[7]

Products[link]

Syngenta has eight primary product lines. The company develops, markets and sells these worldwide:

Pesticides:

• Selective Herbicides
• Non-selective Herbicides
• Fungicides
• Insecticides
• Professional Products

Seeds:

• Field Crops
• Vegetables
• Flowers

In 2003, more than half of Syngenta sales came from selective herbicides and fungicides.

Key Syngenta brands include Aatrex (atrazine), Actara, Amistar (azoxystrobin), Callisto, Cruiser (TMX, Thiamethoxam), Daconil (Chlorothalonil), DualGold, Golden Harvest, Garst, Lumax (a selective herbicide), Northrup-King (NK), Rogers, S&G, Gramoxone (paraquat), and Vigor (TMX, Thiamethoxam).

TMX (Thiamethoxam), an insecticide of second generation of the class of the neonicotinoids is patented by Syngenta.

Syngenta finances the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture. This non-profit organization supports sustainable food security projects in a number of countries.

Some of Syngenta's main competitors are: Monsanto Company, BASF, Dow AgroSciences, Bayer CropScience and DuPont.

Biofuels[link]

Like many ag-companies, Syngenta also works in the bio-fuel space.

In 2007, Queensland University in Australia contracted with Syngenta to research different inputs for biofuels as a renewable energy source.^[8]

Board of directors[link]

Syngenta is led by Chairman Martin Taylor. The other Directors are Peggy Bruzelius, Michael Mack, Pierre Landolt, Stefan Borgas, David Lawrence, Peter Thompson, Jacques Vincent, Rolf Watter, Felix Weber, and Juerg Witmer.

Changes in 2007/2008 Michael Pragnell, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Member of the Board, retired from Syngenta. On January 1, 2008 Michael Mack became the new Chief Executive Officer. He was also elected as a new member of the Syngenta Board of Directors in 2008.^[9]

Planned changes in 2012 On 8 February 2012, Syngenta announced that the Board of Directors will propose the election of three new members at the Annual General Meeting on April 24, 2012. Pierre Landolt and Rolf Watter, two existing members of the Board, will retire, having completed their term of office. The three proposed new members are: Vinita Bali, Gunnar Brock and Michel Demaré.

Legal issues and controversies[link]

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Syngenta and its predecessor companies have been involved in numerous legal actions over the years.

There were a series of fatalities due to accidental consumption of the company’s herbicide, Gramoxone (Paraquat), in the 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s, there was also a number of suicides using the product. The herbicide, which is dangerous if ingested, now has a blue dye, a foul odor, and a powerful emetic to help prevent mistakes and discourage misuse.

Atrazine has been banned in several Wisconsin counties in the United States and in the European Union. Syngenta has been accused of attempting to block the publication of UC Berkeley Professor Tyrone Hayes's work on Atrazine. Dr. Hayes claims he resigned his contractor position with Syngenta after they refused to allow him to publish the results of studies they had funded. He obtained independent funding to repeat the research and then published the results.^[10] Tyrone Hayes's original research found that Atrazine caused hermaphroditism in frogs.^[11]

However, EPA and its independent Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) examined all available studies on this topic - including Hayes' work - and concluded there is "currently insufficient data" to determine if atrazine may affect amphibian development. As required by the EPA, Syngenta conducted two experiments under Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) and inspection by the USEPA and German regulatory authorities. In 2007 the EPA held another Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) on the topic and concluded "that atrazine does not adversely affect amphibian gonadal development".^[12]

Syngenta's Galecron (Chlordimeform)insecticide has been questioned^{[according to whom?]} for its possible relationship to bladder cancer and other illnesses.^{[citation needed]} Production of Galecron stopped between 1976 and 1978 for new safety assessments and then halted permanently in 1988 after more research showed potential risk. In a 1995 class action in the US, Ciba-Geigy agreed to cover costs for employee health monitoring and treatment. In 2005, Syngenta reported that employee health monitoring was continuing at the company's Monthey, Switzerland site.^[13]

In 2001, the United States Patent and Trademark Office ruled in favor of Syngenta when the company filed suit against Bayer to protect its patent on a class of neonicotinoid insecticides. The following year Syngenta filed suit against Monsanto and a number of other companies claiming infringement of its U.S. biotechnology patents covering transgenic corn and cotton.

In 2004, the company again filed suit against Monsanto, claiming antitrust violations related to the U.S. biotech corn seed market.

In September 2008 Syngenta's U.S. subsidiaries announced settlements with the United States Environmental Protection Agency totalling $284,000. In various separate cases, the company had been alleged to have failed to store PPE away from areas contaminated with pesticides;^[14] distributed its mesotrione wet paste herbicide with a chemical composition different to that registered with the EPA; and violated rules governing the advertisement of restricted-use pesticides.^[15]

In October 2008 Syngenta was found guilty of wrongful termination in a federal lawsuit in Baltimore, Maryland. A female employee who complained to management about an abusive manager was terminated after the complaint was filed. A jury awarded her $1.85 million.^[16] On May 8, 2009 the judge in the case awarded the woman an additional $244,113.24 in legal fees. The judge, Benson Everett Legg, noted in his order that the counsel for the defense, Whiteford, Taylor and Preston, had billed Syngenta $264,003 for 2,025.5 hours of work. The judge ruled that the fees charged by the counsel for the plaintiff were reasonable.^[17] The Syngenta legal record also includes citations by regulators, NGOs, and individuals for health issues related to its products.

Syngenta was condemned in May 2010 by the Permanent People's Tribunal, Madrid, for human rights violations in Brazil. The case involved the killing of Valmir Mota de Oliveira (aka Keno) and injuries to other workers by private security firm NF Security, hired by Syngenta to evict approximately 200 rural workers from one of their sites. Protestors had occupied the site in protest against the corporation's violation of Brazilian environmental laws in the Iguaçu National Park region, a UNESCO World Heritage area. A September 2007 Federal Police investigation of NF Security concluded that "it was established that the company NF Security recruits private security guards who carry out evictions (...) the majority of people contracted by the company have neither the capacity nor the authorization to work as private security guards, and are acting as such illegally."^[18] Although Syngenta denies knowing that security guards were armed, there are clear indications in the police investigation that the company in fact knew they were armed.^[19]

Farmers Support Team[link]

Syngenta sponsors several agricultural programs in developing nations. SFI created its flagship program, the Farmer Support Team (FST). The FST is a nationwide program in the Philippine archipelago. It works with farmers in all the major rice, fruit, and vegetable production provinces of the country. It began by helping Filipino farmers gain greater understanding and achieve higher productivity through trainings in Integrated Pest Management (IPM), Integrated Crop Management (ICM) and Total Crop Management (TCM).

Syngenta Foundation[link]

The objectives and goals of the Syngenta Foundation are "to work with rural communities in the semiarid regions of the world and improve their livelihoods."^[20]

The Syngenta Foundation addressed the World Food Day Symposium in 2005 as an output of the Millennium Ecosystem Report.^[21]

Awards and community involvement[link]

In October 2008, Syngenta Crop Protection Canada, Inc. was recognized as one of Waterloo Area's Top Employers, as announced in the Waterloo Region Record, Guelph Mercury and Cambridge Times.^[22] In 2011, Syngenta was named among the top 10 employers in biotechnology by Science magazine.^[23] The company was also recognized by the 2011 Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) as one of the best performing chemical companies worldwide. Syngenta was one of only five chemical companies in the World and Europe indices based on economic, social and environmental performance.^[24]

References[link]

External links[link]

Media related to Syngenta at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website

Companies portal

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