According to an interim report from Bayer Group, sales at the company climbed 3.6 per cent in the second quarter of 2008, to €8.5bn. Subgroup Bayer CropScience was particularly successful, with sales rising by 15.5 per cent to €1.8bn. On a currency- and portfolio-adjusted basis, the increase was 23 per cent.
The group attributed such growth chiefly to a substantial volume increase and a rise of nearly 3 per cent in selling prices. “Our business benefited from the trend on the world agricultural markets and generally favourable weather patterns in Europe and Latin America,” management board chairman Werner Wenning remarked.
Sales of the Crop Protection business climbed by 20.9 per cent to €1.5bn, with particularly strong results for fungicides. “We are confident of generating annual sales of €2bn with these products by 2009,” Wenning commented, “two years earlier than our original goal of 2011.”
