A strengthening dollar has seen Syngenta’s first quarter sales fall by five per cent on last year, the company claims.
However, despite the shortfall, the Swiss-based agribusiness maintains its sights are still on overall double-digit growth in earnings per share for 2006.
While seed sales were five per cent lower in constant exchange rates (CER), the company reports its crop protection sales were up by one per cent (CER) up with a good performance in southern and Eastern Europe and Germany. This growth offset a late start to the season in some parts of Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
China headed strong sales growth in the Asia Pacific region but in Latin America, the company reported challenging conditions in Brazil as responsible for a crimp in sales. Syngenta also highlights its strong performance last year as a contributory factor in the fall in performance over the last three months. In 2005 seed sales rose by 42 per cent and crop protection sales were up in the last quarter of the year.
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