Bayer will shed at least 200 jobs in a reorganization of its Crop Science division that also involves halting the production of generic active ingredients, the company said Monday.

“Manufacturers of generic crop protection products, particularly from Asia, have built significant overcapacity over recent years and are pushing onto the market with persistently low prices, some of which are below the manufacturing costs of crop protection products in Europe,” Bayer said in a news release.

“This is exacerbated by increasing regulatory restrictions and national export barriers,” the company said. “In the future, the focus will therefore be even more on strategic, innovative technologies and products that offer growers differentiated value not matched by generics.”

"Production of various generic active ingredients and their associated formulations, which are available at significantly lower prices on the global market, will be discontinued."

Bayer said 200 positions of 1,200 would be eliminated at its Dormagen site, a production facility that will retain “the largest portfolio of active ingredients and crop protection products and will be streamlined to ensure its competitiveness for the future.”

Production and research and development activities at its Frankurt am Main facility will be discontinued after the end of 2028, but Bayer said not all 500 jobs there would be lost. “Divestment opportunities are being explored for some production activities, while other production activities will be moved to the sites in Dormagen and Knapsack, or integrated into the European formulation network,” the company said.

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The company aims to sell parts of the activities, while others will be relocated

"We are committed to Germany. However, to live up to this commitment in times of considerable challenges, we need to adjust," Frank Terhorst, head of strategy and sustainability in the Crop Science division, said in the release.

"This results in difficult decisions that are painful for many colleagues,” Terhorst said. “However, these steps are urgently needed to counteract the significant overcapacity and a hopeless price competition with generics manufacturers from Asia, so that we can maintain production facilities in Germany and continue to produce products competitively for our customers."

Bayer began building a “state-of-the-art facility” to develop crop protection products in Monheim two years ago, thre company said. “These measures will strengthen Monheim as a focused center for research and development of crop protection products. Germany will thus remain Bayer's most important location for research and development of crop protection products worldwide.”

The General Works Council of Bayer and the chemical workers' union IGBCE issued a statement opposing the closure of the Frankfurt am Main site. In Germany, works councils represent employees in discussions regarding pay and working conditions.

Bayer is in the second year of a five-year plan that it hopes will turn the company around. 

“We still have work to do.” CEO Bill Anderson said in March after the company released earnings for 2024. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization decreased in Crop Science last year by 14.2% to about $4.8 billion, "mainly due to significant price declines in the crop protection business," the company said.

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