Syngenta Debuts New Plant for Crop Protection Products

Seeds and agricultural products firm Syngenta Group officially opened a new manufacturing plant in Muttenz, Switzerland that will support its Crop Protection business, the Chinese-owned firm announced Wednesday.

“We are proud to announce the launch of our newly acquired world-class facility in Muttenz today. This investment enhances our crop protection strategy of accelerating growth and demonstrates our confidence in our crop protection innovation pipeline,” said Erik Fyrwald, chief executive officer of Syngenta, in a release. “It also reinforces our commitment to Switzerland.”

Formerly occupied by pharmaceutical firm Novartis, the 23,000-sq-m facility includes several multi-purpose production lines that will be used to create new ingredients and intermediates. 70 former Novartis employees at the site will join Syngenta.

“This multipurpose asset is ideal for supporting highly technical production processes, and the location of the new plant fits perfectly into our existing portfolio. We had recognized the need for additional manufacturing capacity to support the introduction of new products, so we are pleased that we can positively address this now,” the head of Syngenta’s Crop Protection business, Jon Parr, said in a statement.”

The transfer of ownership occurred on Sept. 1, 2020. Full operations are expected to commence at the Muttenz facility in the first quarter of 2021.