(Bloomberg) -- Farmers are still buying weedkillers and insecticides to ensure plentiful harvests despite soaring costs for such chemicals, according to manufacturer FMC Corp.
Prices have been rising as the pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and other supply chain issues have tightened the market. But farmers are also fetching the best prices in years for their crops, so demand for chemicals is “very strong,” FMC’s Chief Executive Officer Mark Douglas said.
“They have the need to make sure they’re maximizing their yields, because that’s where the real value is going to come from,” Douglas said in an interview Wednesday.
The industry is, however, seeing growers in the US, Latin America and Europe unable to get the products they need, Douglas said. That’s contributing to inflating prices.
FMC is interested in mergers and acquisitions, particularly for companies making biologicals, which is a technology that uses microbes as alternatives to traditional crop chemicals. As disruptions occur in the industry, demand for such products will probably rise, he said.
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