Q1 2026 Agribusiness Results: Bayer Crop Science, Mosaic, UPL, TELUS, ICL & Bioceres

For Q1, Bayer had revenue of €7.56 billion versus €7.58 billion last year, reported down 0.3% but up 6.8% factoring currency.

The one notable part is that €448 million in licensing agreement resolution came into Soybean Seed & Traits.

Volume contributed a positive 6% and price up 0.8%, with currency a 7.1% headwind.

EBITDA of €3.065 billion versus €2.16 billion in 2025, up 42.1%. EBITDA before special items of €3.014 billion versus €2.56 billion, up 17.9%.

EBITDA margin before special items expanded to 39.9% from 33.7%.

R&D dropping by 13.5% year-over-year is a significant drop and reinforces that Bayer is focusing on cost management — if they drop by that amount the remainder of the year, that will put their R&D spend at below $2 billion (USD) for the first time since acquiring Monsanto (2018).

Soybean Seed & Traits: €972 million, up 106.3%. The €448 million licensing settlement with Corteva was the main driver. The underlying business benefited from North American price recovery. Additionally, noted the February EPA reinstatement of low-volatility dicamba registrations across 34 states, which paves the way for the Stryax dicamba launch in 2026. Latin America volume growth also contributed. Excluding the licensing payment, this segment grew approximately 6-8% organically, which is still solid.

Corn Seed & Traits: €3.15 billion, up 7.1%. Up across all regions. North America benefited from higher volumes at the start of the season, with EMEA and Latin America driven by product performance and commercial execution.

Herbicides: €1.37 billion, -14.2% reported, -10.2% Fx and p adj. The major weakness for the quarter. Non-glyphosate volumes down in EMEA and APAC. Glyphosate-based products at €478 million were down 15.1% Fx and p adj, with North America and EMEA buyers delaying purchases.

Fungicides: €792 million, -13.5% reported, -10.7% Fx and p adj. Challenging Latin American market conditions plus lower EMEA sales.

Insecticides: €336 million, -13.2% reported, -8.3% Fx and p adj. Latin America headwind dominant. EMEA and APAC volumes higher.

Cotton Seed: €183 million, -21.1% reported, -14.7% Fx and p adj. North American volume decline partially offset by price recovery from the dicamba reinstatement. The dicamba return is a clear tailwind for both Soybean and Cotton Seed franchises.

Other (canola, etc.): €596 million, +8.8% reported, +14.9% Fx and p adj. Strong canola volumes on expected market share gains.

North America: €4,087 million, +5.6% reported, +16.6% Fx and p adj. The strongest region by a wide margin, though heavily inflated by the soybean licensing payment. Corn volumes at season start and dicamba-related cotton/soybean price recovery also contributed. Glyphosate weakness here was a partial offset.

Europe/Middle East/Africa: €1,998 million, -4.6% reported, -2.2% Fx and p adj. Mixed picture. Corn up substantially, but herbicides (both glyphosate and non-glyphosate), fungicides, and Eylea-style competitive pressures across the crop protection portfolio weighed. Bepanthen (Consumer Health) up strongly here but that's not Crop Science.

Asia/Pacific: €511 million, -10.5% reported, -1.2% Fx and p adj. Roughly flat organically. Lower herbicide and vegetable seed volumes offset by insecticide gains.

Latin America: €962 million, -8.0% reported, -7.3% Fx and p adj. Brazil weakness is showing up here too, consistent with FMC, ADAMA and others. Lower fungicide and insecticide sales, partially offset by higher soybean seed volumes. This is the only region where Fx and p adj sales actually declined.

Q1 free cash flow of negative €2.32 billion reflects €2 billion in legal settlement payments, of which €432 million went into the trust fund for the class settlement. Bayer also restructured its STI program starting 2026 to exclude these settlement payments from the free cash flow metric for most employees, and is now guiding free cash flow ex-settlements to €2.0 to €3.0 billion for full year 2026.