Switzerland’s Syngenta Q3 sales rise 10% on strong demand

MUMBAI (ICIS)--Swiss agrichemicals firm Syngenta announced on Thursday a 10% year-on-year increase in its reported third-quarter sales to $2.2bn (€1.58bn), citing improvement in volumes sold across all product lines and market regions.

Sales volume in the crop protection segment increased by 18% in the third quarter on strong demand growth in Europe and Latin America, the company said in a statement.

“Latin America continued to deliver an excellent performance, particularly in Argentina where sales were up by more than 40%,” it said.

Seeds sales during the quarter increased 12% year on year, with sales of corn and soybean up by more than 20%, Syngenta said.   

“The third quarter performance confirms our expectation of continuing positive volume momentum in the second half of 2010,” said Syngenta CEO Mike Mack, in a statement.

“This, coupled with careful control of costs and increasing profitability in seeds, should allow us to achieve full year operating income around last year’s level,” he said.

Looking ahead, the company said that it was in a strong position to capture value from improving conditions in the crop protection market and from the significant advances in its seeds technology.

For the first nine months of the year, Syngenta said its sales inched up 1% at constant exchange rates at $8.9bn.

($1 = €0.72)