Agtrol International of Houston, TX, a major United States fungicide manufacturer has been purchased by Australian-based Nufarm Chemical Company.
Nufarm said Agtrol has sales in the U.S. worth A$100 million last year. Agtrol also has a strong presence in Europe and in several other countries.
Nufarm managing director Doug Rathbone said the purchase would help his company grab a slice of the world market for fungicides.
"As an Australian-based company, we've developed products around the Australian market which is not strong in fungicides," he said.
"It's much stronger in herbicides for crops and in insecticides for crops such as cotton. As we've become more global and gone into the world position, we found we needed to be and wanted to be with a strength in fungicides," Rathbone said.