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 January/February 2007 Rhea & Kaiser Marketing Communications CEO Steve Rhea addresses a gathering of marketing executives at a five day summit held in Beijing and Shanghai. The summit included interactive sessions focused on marketing trends in China; effectively navigating the Chinese political and economic environment; accepted business acumen within China; China's current positioning within the global market, and opportunities for Chinese businesses to work within established and emerging markets worldwide. To read more about his comments, go to www.AgriMarketing.com and scroll down to December 15, 2006. The 20 x '25 Coalition reports that with half of the nation's ethanol expected to be produced in five years within a 600-mile wide circle around north central Iowa, it is of little surprise that Manly, IA, has been selected as the site of a new truck-to-train biofuels trading and distribution center. For the first time, ethanol producers will have a common delivery point for trading and truck and railroad distribution throughout North America. Company officials say the terminal will provide the missing infrastructure needed to facilitate the growth, commodity trading and distribution of ethanol, which is expected to grow three-fold to 12 billion gallons, over the next five years. FMC and BASF announce several new multi-year supply agreements that will allow both companies to expand their crop protection portfolios in several key crop segments. The agreements will grant BASF access within the U.S. to a proprietary insecticidal chemistry owned by FMC — zeta-cypermethrin. FMC will gain access within the U.S. to two active ingredients owned by BASF, pendimethalin and imazethapyr. BASF will begin marketing new Respect insecticide in 2007 — based on zeta-cypermethrin. The Environmental Working Group reports that the federal government paid $21.1 billion in farm subsidies in 2005, up more than 68% from the previous year and the highest payments since 2001. It also releases its updated database of subsidy recipients. To view the database, go to www.ewg.org/farm. David Harms, (l), CPCC-I, CCA, receives from ASA Pres David Sleper, University of Missouri, the 2006 American Society of Agronomy (ASA) Monsanto Professional Certification Award. He is the founder and CEO of Crop Pro-Tech Inc., Bloomington, IL, a crop consulting firm with offices in Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana. The Award recognizes outstanding service to the many facets of the agricultural industry. Case IH reorganizes its sales department and will increase the number of Reg'l Sls Dirs (RSDs) from five to nine. New to the organization are: Art Williams, U.S. Wheat Belt; Eric Weaver, U.S. Rice Belt; and Brian Weaver, U.S. Southeast Livestock. All had been with AGCO. Scott Lynch, U.S. Plains Corn Belt had been with Komatsu America Corp. Promoted to RSDs are: Ronald Kish, Western Canada Small Grains, Kyle Russell, U.S. Great Lakes Corn Belt. Reassigned RSDs are: Bob Mann, Eastern Canada and Northeast U.S. Dairy; John Buse, Western U.S. Specialty, and John Bellis, U.S. Midwest Corn Belt. BASF launches Status, a broadleaf herbicide for corn. Leon Duchene, Status Prod Mgr says, "The innovation of Status is based on three key components: active ingredients dicamba and diflufenzopyr, as well as a unique patented safener-isoxadifen. Together, these ingredients enhance control of all major broadleaf weeds in corn while setting a new standard in crop safety from BASF. Syngenta Seeds agrees to pay a $1.5 million penalty to EPA for selling and distributing seed corn that contained an unregistered genetically engineered pesticide. Eden Bioscience Corp. signs an asset purchase deal with Plant Health Care, Inc., to sell the Company's harpin protein technology and substantially all of the assets related to its agricultural and horticultural markets for $25 million. AGRIMARKETING TOP FIVE EVENTS OF 2006: 1. The ramp-up in production of sustainable energy sources and products derived from agriculture. Demand pushed corn prices to their highest level in a decade, resulting in record farmland prices and rents, the reduction of government subsidy payments while negatively impacting the livestock industry's profit margins. 2. The battle between suppliers of crop input traits (herbicide and insect resistance, etc.) escalates. Joining Monsanto in supplying traits are Dow AgroSciences, DuPont, and Syngenta. 3. Farm machinery company executive changes. Every major machinery company, and many shortliners, named a new Pres and/or Sls/Mktg Dir in 2006. 4. Monsanto's family of seed companies pulls nearly even with Pioneer in marketshare at approximately 30% share, according to industry experts. 5. The first large-scale commercial use of "Genomic Selection" technology is introduced, allowing researchers to check an animal's traits before its birth. A special salute to Farm Journal's Pam Henderson who was awarded the 2006 Grand Neil Award, which is considered the "Pulitizer Prize" of the business-to-business journalism profession. For a listing of the Top 10 and other memorable events, go to www.AgriMarketing.com and scroll down to the December 29, 2007 news. IN MEMORIAM Sonja Hillgren, Sr. VP, Editorial, for Farm Journal Media, died after battling brain cancer. Originally from Sioux Falls, SD, she received a B.S. and M.S. from the University of Missouri and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. During her career, she worked as the ag reporter for Knight-Ridder and UPI before joining Farm Journal as its Washington D.C. Bureau Chief in 1990. From 1995 through 2004, she served as Editor of the magazine before her promotion to Sr. VP. Under her leadership, the Farm Journal editors have won numerous awards and honors for their coverage of the agricultural industry. In 1996, she was elected and served as Pres of the National Press Club — the only ag communicator to have done so. Tweet |
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