Kureha plans to sell fungicide in Japan

01 December 2006 09:01  [Source: ICIS news]

TOKYO (ICIS news)--Kureha plans to start selling its popular fungicide, Metconazole, in Japan from January 2007, a spokesman for the chemical company said on Friday.

Metconazole is an agricultural fungicide that is used in more than 30 countries around the world on a variety of crops, including wheat and oil seed rape, according to the spokesman.

It decreases the concentrations of deoxynivalenol in grain, he added.

The spokesman said that the product was sold mainly in Europe, Central and South America, where there was more demand.

The company decided to sell it in Japan for use for wheat because the farmers were having problems with the diseases of wheat. The company registered the product on 29 November with the authorities as a fungicide for wheat-related diseases such as mildew.

The product will be sold mainly in Hokkaido at the beginning, where "probably half of the wheat produced in Japan is grown," said the spokesman, adding that the company would later start selling it nationwide.

The spokesman also said that the company was considering expanding the usage of Metconazole to other oats such as barley, and to develop various forms of the product including as powder and agent for dispersal by unmanned helicopter.

By: Tomomi Yokomura
+65 6780 4359

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