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Q1 2025 Crop Protection & Seed Company Results: Themes, Highlights and Analysis

Essential news and analysis for agribusiness leaders.

Author

Shane Thomas
May 24, 2025 • Read Time: 5 minutes

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1. Market Buying Habits and Channel Destocking

Q1 2025 reinforced a move towards normalization and the end of channel destocking, broadly speaking. The shift to more typical purchasing patterns supported improved demand and sales in crop protection products in terms of volumes.

Though, there was some variation by company and region:

Syngenta

A recovery in Crop Protection…with an end to channel destocking increasing demand, particularly in the US, and further strong growth in China.

However, LatAm still has some challenges for Syngenta:

Sales in Latin America declined by 9% due to ongoing channel destocking, pricing pressure and unfavorable currency. Sales in Brazil were 5% below the prior year.

FMC experienced the opposite than Syngenta, seeing a decline in the USA:

Sales in North America fell 28% due to delayed U.S. purchasing and trade friction.

Retailers and growers in the U.S. were slower to place orders in response to lower commodity price, the perception of import supply, and uncertainty as a result of recent trade dynamics.

While FMC had a positive quarter in LatAm, with sales up 10% (17% without Fx), driven by strong direct-to-grower demand in Brazil:

We expect to enter the next growing season in Latin America without the destocking headwinds we faced over the last two seasons.

Nufarm was more like FMC:

North America has been slower to normalize than other regions. Pricing pressures, a delayed season, and just-in-time buying negatively impacted the result and volumes.

UPL CEO Mike Frank was direct, having had a positive quarter and fiscal year (Note: UPL Fiscal year ends March 31st) (emphasis mine):

In FY '25, we saw the macro global crop protection market start a gradual rebound….Farmers and dealers, their buying patterns are now reset. We believe channel destocking is complete in most major markets. And we see normalized ordering patterns from both growers and the farmers, although they continue to order closer and closer to the use season….active ingredient prices are stabilizing at the current level.

b. Pricing and Generics

Generic pressure is continuing to come at all major crop protection companies.

There was a point of emphasis from the major manufacturers surrounding efforts they are taking to manage their cost position. Whether it was cost reductions put in place by the likes Bayer or UPL over the last number of months/year, or manufacturing initiatives from companies like FMC to reduce their overhead and COGS.

Unsurprisingly, the consensus is that generic pressure will not only remain, but grow in coming years.

Bayer CEO Rodrigo Santos concisely shared their view and the rationale for generic challenges:

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