Bayer is targeting new markets in the agricultural business in order to secure additional sales.

The pharmaceutical and agricultural company announced on Tuesday that Bayer's CropScience division will increasingly focus on regenerative agriculture in the future and intends to grow in adjacent markets in addition to its core business with seeds, plant traits, crop protection and digital agriculture. Bayer sees potential in biological products, biofuels and carbon farming, for example, and anticipates a total potential volume of over EUR 100 billion in adjacent markets. The CropScience division could thus double its current market potential - of more than 100 billion euros for the core portfolio.

In 2022, Bayer invested EUR 2.6 billion before special items in research and development to further develop its agricultural pipeline, almost 24 percent more than in the previous year. The Leverkusen-based company now estimates the peak sales potential of this pipeline at more than EUR 30 billion, up from almost EUR 30 billion at the beginning of last year.

"We want to position ourselves much more broadly in agriculture," said Rodrigo Santos, Head of the division and member of the Board of Management, at the Crop Science Innovation Summit in New York. "We will deliver innovations for regenerative agriculture and thus open up new market potential." Bayer believes that this will not only increase farmers' yields, but that the new products will also contribute to soil regeneration and reduce the impact of agriculture on the climate and the environment.

(Report by Patricia Weiß, edited by Ralf Banser. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)