Bayer CropScience hosts inaugural Vegetable Future Forum in Monheim

Partnerships key to success of global vegetable food value chain

Monheim, 13-12-2012 — /europawire.eu/ — Partnerships are key to the success of the global vegetable food value chain, and Bayer CropScience is committed to leveraging its position to help connect the various parts of this chain, and propel the future of farming.

At Bayer CropScience’s first Vegetable Future Forum held today, approximately 200 representatives of the international vegetable food value chain and industry experts met to discuss key trends and challenges faced by the vegetable food value chain.

The one-day event aims at stimulating fresh perspectives on topics ranging from the development of fast-growth markets in Latin America and Asia Pacific, evolution of the biological market, to overall market trends and dynamics. Speakers represented companies such as METRO Group, Nestlé, Koppert Biological Systems, Rabobank and SAP.

“Our aim is to become the partner of choice in fruit and vegetables by working together with partners to drive innovation forward,” said Dr. Rüdiger Scheitza, Member of the Board of Management of Bayer CropScience AG.

Improved vegetable seeds and innovative crop protection solutions

Enhancing nutrition through healthy vegetables is one of the company’s key commitments, underlined by long-term investments to ensure sustainable vegetable production. “We are able to offer growers integrated solutions – from vegetable seeds marketed under our brand name Nunhems, innovative chemical and biological crop protection solutions, to an extensive service backup – to help vegetable growers get the very best from their fields,” says Frank Terhorst, Head of Strategic Business Management for Fruit & Vegetables and Insecticides.

In 2012, Bayer CropScience acquired the watermelon and melon seed business of Abbott & Cobb, USA, and the U.S. biological pest control company AgraQuest. Bayer CropScience is also investing heavily in R&D – EUR 5 billion from 2011 to 2016 for all crops and products in its portfolio – to deliver differentiated solutions to meet customers’ needs, leveraging the company’s expertise in seeds, small molecules and biologics.

Fostering Food Chain Partnerships

Bayer CropScience’s Food Chain Partnership business initiative brings together growers, processors, exporters and importers, and retailers. Currently 240 projects in 30 countries are ongoing and spans 40 primarily fruit and vegetables crops. In these partnerships, Bayer CropScience offers customized solutions based on high-quality vegetable seed, effective crop protection, complementing services and expertise in environmental protection, efficiency and safety.

“Consumers today want to know where and how their food is being produced. Our Food Chain Partnerships facilitate partnerships along the food value chain worldwide for the benefit of all partners. The common goal is the sustainable production and supply of high quality fruit and vegetable crops for nutritious food,” says Dr. Birgitt Walz-Tylla, Head of Food Chain Management.

About Bayer CropScience
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, agriculture and high-tech materials. Bayer CropScience, the subgroup of Bayer AG responsible for the agricultural business, has annual sales of EUR 7.255 billion (2011) and is one of the world’s leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of seeds, crop protection and non-agricultural pest control. The company offers an outstanding range of products including high value seeds, innovative crop protection solutions based on chemical and biological modes of action as well as an extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture. In the area of non-agricultural applications, Bayer CropScience has a broad portfolio of products and services to control pests from home and garden to forestry applications. The company has a global workforce of 21,000 and is represented in more than 120 countries. This and further news is available at: www.press.bayercropscience.com.

Find more information at www.bayercropscience.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer Group or subgroup management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer’s public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

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