Swiss agrochemicals producer Syngenta has completed capacity expansions at key production sites in Brazil and Switzerland. Altogether, the company has invested $240 million in the projects, which include a new fungicide plant in Paulínia, São Paulo, and an expanded corn seed factory in Formosa, Goiás, both in Brazil. It has also widened output capability for S-Metolachlor in Kaisten, Switzerland.

The Paulínia formulation plant for the fungicide sold under the Elatus trademark is claimed to be the first in Latin America to make use of the peptite technology, which Syngenta said results in water-soluble granules that combine the properties of liquid use with the convenience and easy transportable advantage of a dry, solid product. This is said to improve transportation of the ingredients to the plant tissue, ensuring rapid and systemic protection of the crop.

Syngenta’s sales of Elatus in Latin America exceeded $400 million in 2015. The company said the fungicide “provides outstanding potency against soybean rust and provides long lasting control and increased yield benefits for the grower.” At the Formosa site, production at the corn seed plant has been quadrupled to raise its production capacity to 1.6 million bags of corn per year from 400,000 t/y.

Syngenta sad the investment in Kaisten has enabled a “significant production capacity expansion” for S-Metolachlor, a leading herbicide used in many of its brands. It said the herbicide “has proven to be a critical tool in managing weeds that are increasingly difficult to control in a number of crops, notably corn and soybean.”