Farmers are shifting their crop protection purchases from name products to generics and reducing applications to save money, which is creating fresh challenges for ag chemical companies like FMC Corporation, which posted a second quarter of revenue declines after the bell on July 29.
FMC reported $867 million in quarterly revenues in Q2 2026, a decline of 17% from the same quarter last year. FMC’s North American business experienced the sharpest decline in sales, from $321 million in Q2 2025 to $249 million this year, the company reported. Asia excluding India was the second largest decline, dropping from $159 million to $101 million in revenues.
Quarterly volume declines were driven by lower diamide partner orders and weaker demand for core legacy products, while “branded diamide sales, excluding India, were essentially flat year-over-year,” Pierre Brondeau, CEO of FMC, shared on an earnings call.
However, FMC experienced higher sales in its growth portfolio, including its broad-spectrum insecticide active Cyazypyr. Newer formulations of its active chemical for worm and caterpillar pests Rynaxypyr registered strong volume growth, especially in North America and Brazil.
This comes as the crop chemical market faces numerous headwinds, largely due to strained farmer economics and rising input prices, Brondeau explained.
“Growers are faced with the difficult situation of low prices for many crops combined with higher costs for inputs such as fertilizer and fuel driven by the uncertain geopolitical environment. We are seeing growers respond to these margin pressures by carefully managing costs and reducing discretionary spending wherever possible. For crop chemicals that can mean trading down to a generic or reducing the number of applications,” Brondeau elaborated.
FMC commits to rebound strategy
Amid these business headwinds, FMC reaffirmed its turnaround plan of reducing debt and boosting innovation, which the company outlined in Dec. 2023.
As part of its debt reduction, FMC agreed to sell its India commercial business for $252 million and signed a $114 million sale-leaseback agreement for its Newark, Delaware property, the company shared.
Additionally, during the second quarter, FMC entered into a commercial agreement with ag supplier Corteva to manufacturer rimisoxafen, which included a $200 million upfront payment.
FMC is exploring additional opportunities to license its molecule and collaborations where they can shift development costs earlier in the research and development cycle, Brondeau noted.
“Against this backdrop, we continued to make progress on our four operational pillars: reducing debt, improving the competitiveness of our core portfolio, managing the post-patent transition for Rynaxypyr and growing new active ingredients. These pillars remain the foundation of the company’s plan to improve earnings and cash generation while positioning FMC for future growth and the expanding contribution of its innovation pipeline,” Brondeau elaborated.
