Monsanto Plans Roundup Facility Boost in Louisiana

Monsanto Company is intending to make an investment of up to $196 million over the next 18 months at its glyphosate manufacturing facility in Luling, Louisiana. The planned development will increase its global capacity to produce Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides. "Growing global adoption of our seed products, including Roundup Ready crops, has led to increased demand for our Roundup agricultural herbicides," said Mark Leidy, executive vice president of manufacturing at Monsanto. Monsanto recently received authorization from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) on three permits which pave the way for the new enhancements at its Luling facility. The company's investment is designed to both expand infrastructure and front-end manufacturing capacity at the facility. Monsanto is focused on making improvements to the company's manufacturing processes at Luling over the next 18 months by continuing to leverage technology and capital improvements throughout the manufacturing process. These improvements have the potential to increase the site's manufacturing capacity of Roundup agricultural herbicide by approximately 20 percent once finalized, which would increase the overall global supply of glyphosate by more than 10 percent. Monsanto's Luling plant expansion, which is expected to be completed in the first half of the company's 2010 fiscal year. Roundup is the largest selling herbicide brand in the world. Its active ingredient, glyphosate, was first developed and introduced in the 1970s. The herbicide was first marketed to farmers in 1973. Now, nearly thirty-five years later, Roundup brand herbicides are considered the world's most efficient and most used herbicides by farmers throughout the world. Sales of Roundup herbicides have steadily increased since the introduction of the first-generation of Roundup Ready crops in the 1990s. Since that time, farmers around the world have used Monsanto's Roundup Ready technology and glyphosate-based herbicides to adopt environmentally-friendly farming practices like conservation tillage to preserve topsoil and reduce on-farm costs. Monsanto Company is a leading global provider of technology-based solutions and agricultural products that improve farm productivity and food quality. For more information on Monsanto, visit www.monsanto.com.