Source: The Economic Times of India via Yahoo! News
by Jeetha D'Silva

Syngenta, a global crop science major, plans to set up a research facility in India. The R&D unit will be set up in Goa and may be operational by the end of next year.

According to industry sources, Syngenta is likely to shift a major chunk of its development activities to India.

Senior company officials confirmed Syngenta’s plans to set up a research laboratory in India, but declined to comment on specifics.

“The company has taken a decision to have some research facility in India, but we have not set a time-frame,” a senior official said. Officials said the company had decided to have a research facility in the country because of the size of the market.

“India has a big agricultural set up and we have a presence in the country. Hence, we would like to do research here,” an official said. The lab is to be set up at the company’s plant at Goa.

Industry sources say that Syngenta is looking at hiring in a big way for its R&D facility. The company is organised into two business segments — crop protection and seeds.

The crop protection division manufactures, distributes and sells herbicides, insecticides and fungicides. The seeds division mainly sells seeds for growing cotton, oilseeds, vegetables and flowers.

The domestic operations of Syngenta recorded R&D expenditure of Rs 90.5m for the year ended December ’03. This expenditure amounts to 2.0% of the company’s total turnover.

For the last quarter ended September, the company posted a net profit of Rs 18.7 crore, up 24% from the previous year. Total income increased 53.7% to Rs 162.9 crore.

Currently, Syngenta does some amount of development work in the country. The scope of activities cover facilities for formulations, packaging and process development in the areas of crop protection chemicals and seeds.

The R&D unit is also engaged in various developmental activities, such as import substitution of raw materials, batch cycle time reduction and process stabilisation.

The company’s annual report states that R&D in the relevant areas of business operations will continue.

“Emphasis will be on adapting products and processes to improve performance, be more environment-friendly with a view to meeting customer needs,” the company says.