Switzerland's Syngenta is considering setting up local production facilities of crop protection products in Russia rather than relying on importing its products, the head of its Russian office said on Thursday. Russia, one of the world's largest wheat exporters, has boosted its grain production in recent years despite Western sanctions imposed on it in 2014 but is reliant on imports of seeds and crop protection.
"We are actively investing in Russia... We are thinking of organising our own production of crop protection products," Jonathan Brown, the head of Syngenta's Russian office, told a conference in Moscow. Syngenta's Board of Directors will decide whether to go ahead with the project in the first quarter of 2018, he told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference. "After this (decision) we will be moving quickly," Brown said.