In October, Syngenta hosted a summit for agricultural trade media from across the United States. The event, held in Orlando, brought in leadership from the company to provide insights on current conditions impacting the crop protection market and new active ingredients.
Jeff Cecil, Syngenta regional director of North American crop protection, gave a big-picture snapshot of how geopolitical events around the world are impacting the company and other large chemical manufacturers. He said tariffs and high fuel prices are driving prices higher for Syngenta and other chemical manufacturers.
“The persistent input inflation we’ve seen is here, and I don’t see that slowing down anytime soon,” Cecil said. “High geopolitical volatility makes it hard for anybody to predict what will happen and how to plan for it.”
For Syngenta, the drive to differentiate itself from its competitors will continue to be a core mission going into the future, noted Cecil.
“We are looking for the next thing that will give the farmer a little bit more and give Syngenta an edge and will give the overall industry an edge,” he said.
The company believes its newly developed Plinazolin® technology will help differentiate itself. A Group 30 mode of action, Plinazolin® has been brought to market over the past year. The active ingredient behind Plinazolin® is isocycloseram.
The Plinazolin® products will go by several different brand names according to crop application. In citrus, the brand is called Zivalgo. Key insect pests it controls are Asian citrus psyllids, leafminers, mites and thrips.
Geoff Roe’s family operates Noble Ag, a fresh fruit citrus producer in Florida. Roe spoke to the group about his experience with Zivalgo and its control of rust mite, an important pest in fresh citrus.
“If you can take your spray program and remove three to four active ingredients with just one spray of this new product, you really start getting a return on investment,” Roe said. “Another thing we saw with our spring application of Zivalgo, those fields never got to critical levels to where we were forced to be reactionary spraying for mites. So, we are starting off the season with Zivalgo, and it carries on through with our existing active ingredients applied in an appropriate way.”
Plinazolin® also has shown good control of chilli thrips, which has been increasingly problematic in berry crops. It was announced during the summit that Florida had recently approved an emergency use exemption for Plinazolin® under the brand name Incipio for chilli thrips control in strawberries.
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