DuPont Switching Gears, Increasing Focus on Agriculture

By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com

DuPont’s agriculture unit continues to perform well, reporting a 7 percent gain in sales, according to its second-quarter earnings report.

While the company’s agriculture segment had a strong showing, DuPont said it is exploring spinning off its performance chemicals arm after a 12 percent decrease in profits. This move marks a shift away from DuPont’s traditional business model – performance chemicals towards a greater emphasis on supplying inputs for agriculture crops.

The company attributed its agriculture sales growth due to higher seed prices coupled with higher insecticide and fungicide volumes. “Agriculture sales remained strong in the second quarter and titanium dioxide volume improved. As expected, this was largely offset by a substantial decline in performance chemicals earnings from last year’s peak levels,” said Ellen Kullman, DuPont Chair and CEO.

Overall, the company reported second-quarter profit of $1.03-billion, or $1.11 per share.  DuPont said it expects full-year operating earnings to be about $3.85 per share.