(Reuters) -U.S. agrichemicals firm Corteva reported a larger-than-expected loss on Wednesday, hurt by lower sales and prices, leading the company to cut its full-year sales outlook and sending its shares down over 10% after market close.
A decline in agricultural commodity prices has forced many farmers to rein in their spending on crop chemicals, hurting companies such as Corteva which makes pesticides and insecticide.
Additionally, demand for crop protection chemicals also remains subdued in South America as floods in one of the top grain producer, Brazil, hit demand.
Corteva’s net sales fell 10% to $2.33 billion for the quarter ended Sept. 30.
The company is among the largest crop-protection product makers in the United States, competing with the likes of Syngenta and German firms BASF and Bayer in the agricultural chemicals sector.
“Following a strong first half, the seed business was impacted by lower planted area in Latin America in the quarter,” CEO Chuck Magro said in a statement.
The seeds segment, which deals with the sale of seeds of soy, corn, and other grains like wheat, saw sales fall 21%, with sales to Latin America sliding 43%.
The company attributed this to a decline in prices and lower volumes on reduced corn planted area in Argentina.
Meanwhile in its crop protections segment, sales fell 4% on a drop in pricing. Destocking in Europe offset the volume growth in Latin and North America.
For full-year 2024, Corteva expects sales between $17.0 billion and $17.2 billion, down from its previous estimate of $17.2 billion to $17.5 billion.
It expects sales for the next year to be in the range of $17.3 billion to $17.7 billion.
The Indianapolis-based company reported a loss of 49 per share for the July-to-September period, compared with average analysts’ estimate of a loss of 30 cents per share, according to data compiled by LSEG.
(Reporting by Seher Dareen in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
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