AGROCHEMICALS company Syngenta said yesterday that it was planning to eliminate 1,800 jobs globally as part of a £637 million cost-cutting programme in order to boost profits.

The Basel-based manufacturer is one of the world’s largest suppliers of seeds and crop chemicals and has more than 28,000 employees in over 90 countries

It said that most of the company-wide job reductions would occur during 2015 and were among the £637m in targeted savings to be made by
2018, including £169m next year.

Syngenta chief executive Mike Mack claimed that the company was making “significant progress in cutting costs.”

He insisted that reductions for 2015 had resulted from “a challenging market environment,” but that longer-term savings would improve the company’s “commercial effectiveness and power of innovation.”

Syngenta announced in February a net profit of £1 billion last year and cut spending by £295m.

At that time, Syngenta forecast an improvement in its gross margins.

It reported a margin on earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of 19.7 per cent. In 2015, it expects to come in at around 24 per cent.

The company said it would pay a dividend of 10 francs (£6.60) per share, up 5 per cent and flagged up further expected increases. 

Syngenta’s political contributions to United States federal candidates, parties and outside groups totaled $267,902 (£170,737) during 2012 and in the same year its lobbying expenditures in the US during 2012 were $1.15bn (£733,000).