Bayer CropScience officials say they are optimistic peanut and small grain producers in the U.S. will have access to their popular new fungicide sometime in 2007.
Based on Bayer's prothioconazole chemistry, a one-to-one mixture with the familiar fungicide Folicure, Provost is being aimed at fusarium control in peanuts. Prothioconazole in a one-to-two mixture with Folicure, will be called Prosaro, and is intended for cereal crops, says Frank Gohlich, Bayer's fungicide portfolio manager. A third preparation, straight prothioconazole, will be marketed as Proline in the U.S. for other labeled crops.
Gohlich says prothioconazole is the product of work that began in the early 1990s, and notes Bayer officials are optimistic it will soon be registered by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The new chemistry is already in use in Europe and South American small grain fields and accounted for a two-percent increase in fungicide sales for Bayer over the first half of the fiscal year, says Bayer's CEO, Friedrich Berschauer. "Overall, the sales growth for prothioconazole was 31.4 percent worldwide," he explained.
Part of New Wave
The new fungicide is one of 26 new active ingredients Bayer CropSciences scheduled for launch from 2000 through 2011, with hopes of seeing a peak sales potential of about EUR 2 billion. Berschauer says the share of sales for the new crop protection products is expected to reach 50% as Bayer replaces older chemicals with new proprietary formulations in the future.