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September 3, 2003
continued from
page 2
In
response to differing markets and customer structures, the
company is subdivided into three business groups with a total of
eight strategic business units:
- Crop Protection ...
comprising Insecticides, Fungicides, Herbicides and Seed
Treatment.
- Environmental Science ...
with the Professional and Consumer units. The first is oriented
towards professional pest managers and organizations that deal
with disease-carrying insects and termites. A further field of
work involves the protection and care of green spaces. The
Consumer segment serves do-it-yourself gardeners with a wide
range of garden, lawn and home care products.
- BioScience ...
which is comprised of the strategic business units Crop
Improvement and Nunza. In Crop Improvement, our current plant
biotechnology research and development work focuses on five of
the world's most important crops: canola, maize, soya, cotton
and rice.
A further sub-entity, "New Business Ventures", is directing its
research activities towards new markets with considerable growth
potential. By applying biotechnology, we will utilize plants to
produce novel products for other industry sectors. My colleague
Bernward Garthoff will elaborate on this topic in his part of
our presentations.
Nunza is one of the leading international developers and
suppliers of high quality hybrid vegetable seed varieties. The
company specializes in both high quality and high nutritional
value for the end consumer and offers around 900 varieties of
seeds in 30 species around the globe.
The heart of
our R&D activities lies at the research center in Monheim, one
of the world's biggest and most modern Crop Protection
facilities. The research center in Frankfurt is specialized in
herbicide innovation while Lyon concentrates on Fungicides.
Further activities are carried out in Kansas (USA) and Yuki
(Japan), as well as numerous R&D stations around the world with
their respective regional infrastructure.
This far-reaching network of R&D sites throughout the world
builds on strong international diversity. We want to capitalize
on this unique capacity to utilize different philosophies and
approaches to R&D and at the same time address specific local
and regional needs and opportunities.
Our industry is currently and will remain one of the most
research intensive sectors. To maintain a leadership position,
considerable investment in R&D is a prerequisite.
Fewer and fewer companies have been willing to commit the
necessary resources to develop and implement innovation in the
full breadth of our business.
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