The worldwide market for agricultural inputs of crop protection products, seeds and traits could grow to around €100 billion by 2020, up from €50bn in 2008.
That's according to Bayer CropScience, which has reported that to keep in line with this growth, it embarked on an investment programme in 2013 that will see capital expenditure of €2.4bn through 2016, of which €1.3bn will be spent in Europe, with €800m being planned for use in Germany alone.
Between 2013 and 2016 Bayer CropScience has also lined up capital expenditure of some €700m in North America, and around €400min Latin America and Asia Pacific.
The largest individual investments are planned for the Dormagen, Frankfurt and Knapsack sites in Germany, as well as Mobile and Kansas City in the US.
'We are convinced of the long-term growth potential of the agricultural markets despite increasing volatility,' said Bayer CropScience CEO Liam Condon at the company’s annual press conference in Monheim, Germany, earlier this week (w/c 15 September).
Also over the next few years, Bayer CropScience will invest around €1bn onR&D annually, helping to fuel the company's product pipeline.
Condon stressed the need for agricultural innovation: 'Farmers constantly experience new challenges - threats to food security worldwide,' he said. 'Examples here are the devastating citrus greening in orange plantations in the US, dramatically reducing orange supplies, worsening soil salinity in some rice growing areas in South Asia or the growing global productivity gap in wheat.'
