Facelift for re-badged Farmoz

The name change coincides with the pending release of the company's first proprietary chemistry development for Australia - the horticulture nematicide, Nimitz.

Adama is also flagging registration of a proprietary cotton and horticulture insecticide, Scope, next year.

Although currently the world's biggest maker of off-patent farm chemicals, Adama's own newly-patented "advanced" lines are set to be a significant part of its global portfolio as it beefs up its product development focus.

In Australia recent launches of its unique hybrid formulations using existing chemistry - the broadleaf herbicide Triathlon, and cereal fungicide Radial - will be followed later this year by grape fungicide Solaris and multi-crop insecticide Pyrinex Super.

The Chinese-Israeli multinational which has run Farmoz since 2011 is also launching a simple colour-coding container and labelling system for its various crop protection categories, and ramping up its digital advisory capacity give more backup depth to farmers and farm advisors.

Internationally Adama is a conglomeration of 28 different companies and more than 40 brands, 60 per cent owned by the 10-year old Chinese State-run giant China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina).

The remaining 40pc ownership stake is held by Israeli investment group IDB.

In Australia, Farmoz has grown rapidly into one Australia's leading chemical businesses since initial investment in what was then a relatively modest chemical import and distribution business in 2004 by Israeli chemical giant Makhteshin Agan.

Global president and chief executive officer Chen Liechtenstein said access to technology and different research across the company had opened up even bigger opportunities to broaden the chemical choices available to Australian farmers.

The Adama network boasts chemical plants across Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Middle East, seven product development registration hubs and two (soon to be three) research and development centres.

Mr Liechtenstein told a special launch event for the Adama name in Sydney last week the company wanted to strengthen its robust off-patent business, but specialty lines would be a "significant majority of what we sell by the end of the decade".

He highlighted how fast maturing China offered exciting research and development and new formulate production opportunities for Adama's global market, plus huge local market growth potential of its own.

Chinese crop protection product sales were expected to rival the US or Brazil in the coming decade.

Adama's Chinese research and markets would also benefit from the company's integration of intellectual property from overseas with the company's rapidly expanding Chinese production facilities.

"Agriculture in China is a very fragmented business market. It offers a lot of potential in crop protection and other related areas," he said.

Australian managing director David Peters said the global company's investment in local research trials and product initiatives in the past three years had resulted in a string of applications awaiting regulatory approval.

Products in the pipeline ranged from new formulations to strategic mixes of existing chemistry to tackle specific agronomic challenges.

"At any given point we've probably got between 100 and 200 trials underway at different locations around Australia," said Mr Peters, who later this year moves jobs to head one of Adama's eight global business hubs based on the Asia-Pacific market.

"The Adama brand is continuing to foster our commitment to solving local issues with global solutions."

A team of technically-trained market development managers had also been appointed to work closely with agronomists and farm consultants to highlight the company's research findings and product options.

"We're committed to working with our customers to identify, develop and deliver solutions that help them grow and simplify Australian agriculture," Mr Peters said.

THE newly-chosen Adama name has close ties with the company's Israeli roots, meaning "earth" in Hebrew.

The Tel Aviv-based chemical giant's origins date back to the Agan and Makhteshin companies established in Israel in 1945 and 1952, which grew in tandem during the next four decades, spreading internationally in the 1990s.

An eventual merger between the two chemical makers in 1997 was followed by a drive to respond to new market demands worldwide, as well as more overseas acquisitions, including Australia's Farmoz in 2004.

In 2011 the majority of the business was bought by ChemChina, currently placed about 350th on Fortune Magazine's list of the world's top 500 biggest companies.

Adama, which has 4500 employees worldwide reported revenues of almost $3.3 billion for 2013, deriving 41 per cent of its business from North and South America, 37pc from Europe and 22pc from the Asia-Pacific region.

Globallly Adama boasts a compound annual growth rate around 12pc and is expected to be re-floated as a public company next year, probably on the New York Stock Exchange.