INTERVIEW
Collaborative Innovation for a Sustainable
Future
“Dow, as a global provider, is not fixed on business models and
it depends on the market. For example, we have both direct sales
or we sell via channel partners. Dow Crop Defense partners with
customers, often working on specific customer projects under a
confidentiality agreement. For both direct sale and selling through
channel partners, we are always there to help our customers
develop solutions for farmers. That is our mission and our role
in the value chain,” Lili Wu, Asia Pacific Marketing Manager for
Industrial Solutions at The Dow Chemical Company.
In the agrochemical industry, there are two different types of
players, patent and post-patent companies. For patent companies,
they have strong capabilities to develop new molecules. The
collaboration with them usually focuses on developing new actives,
and even new formulation types. For post-patent companies,
the requirements usually focus on how to support formulation
development. Take Chinese customers as an example, they are
facing strong competition. So they have a lot of ideas of bringing
different AI mixtures together, which will result in issues like
compatibility and stability, which require support for formulation
4 2017 Formulation & Adjuvant Technology
development. For example, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is
emerging in China market in recently, the suitable new formulation
type and adjuvant solution to solve compatibility, anti-evaporation
and drift control issues are required from market. Dow is working
with industry to provide solution to serve this new area.
Besides above two models, Dow also started to collaborate with
biopesticide companies which is another a new important trend in
the agrochemical industry.
Future vision
“Dow Crop Defense is one of our important businesses. We
expect considerable growth from expanding our product line, share
gain and working with our customers on new innovation. We have
been investing a lot in developing new products and increasing our
research and market capabilities for ongoing growth.
In addition, we expect that this market will continue to face
tough challenges, such as regulatory pressures and weed-resistant
crops that usher in new combinations of active ingredients, and
the industry will need to look for new solutions to address these
problems, and Dow Crop Defense is your single source for
enhanced formulations” Dr. Cruz expressed.
www.agropages.com