INTERVIEW

Dow Crop Defense:

Stand Out in the Field with Dow

AgroPages recently interviewed Dr. Rui Vogt Alves da Cruz, R&D Director for
Industrial Solutions at The Dow Chemical Company, and Lili Wu, Asia Pacific
Marketing Manager for Industrial Solutions at The Dow Chemical Company,
to seek their views on Dow Crop Defense’s global presence, product series,
competitive advantages, as well as future development planning etc.

Dr. Rui Vogt Alves da Cruz

R&D Director for Industrial Solutions at The We are dynamic and pro-active in all the geographies in terms of
Dow Chemical Company market participation and development, technical services, market
presence,” Dr. Cruz stated.

Global Presence Wide Array of Capabilities

“Dow Chemical has been serving the agrochemical industry
for decades, and about two years ago we officially launched a
dedicated business, Dow Crop Defense, as a leading chemical
partner to enable production of actives and formulations that
enhance grower yields,” said Dr. Rui Vogt Alves da Cruz, R&D
Director for Industrial Solutions at The Dow Chemical Company.
“Dow Crop Defense is a global solutions provider of inert
and additive agrochemical ingredients for both adjuvants and
pesticides with in-depth product performance expertise to meet
specific needs of our customers by customized solutions and
global supply capabilities,” he said.
“Now, Dow Crop Defense has established a global presence
in the agrochemicals market, served customer needs around
the world, so our marketing plans must reflect local and regional
issues, for instance, based on different performance standards,
crop types, and market conditions. We have strong activities in
North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Talking
about this region, our major markets are China, Japan and
Australia. And we are also expanding our market quickly in
South East Asian countries such as Indonesia and Viet Nam.
With regard to the competitive advantages, Dr. Cruz said that
Dow Crop Defense has a number of core competencies to offer
solutions to adjuvants customers. For instance, Dow brings many
decades of solvent and surfactant expertise across a broad range
of chemistries that have modeling capabilities for Dow and non-
Dow products to capably solve leading industry problems.
Dow Industrial Solutions has more than 130 Technical Service
& Development employees in 8 R&D labs globally with more than
80 years of solid experience and understanding in applications.
Dow provides holistic technical support for pesticide formulations,
such as product support, a formulation guide, product development
and specification support. Dow pioneers applying High-Throughput
(HTR) R&D platform to the screening of pesticide formulations,
thus greatly improving research efficiency and effectively reducing
human errors. The HTR platform is capable of conducting many
tests, such as solubility/compatibility, solubilization, suspension
stability, emulsion stability, surface tension/CMC, rheology, foam
generation and stability, freeze-thaw stability, wetting performance,
and optical clarity.
“Technology is one of key advantages of Dow, both in terms

2 2017 Formulation & Adjuvant Technology www.agropages.com