An industry-wide destocking at wholesalers and retailers has spoiled the start of the year for the agrochemicals company Syngenta Group.

Sales in the first quarter fell by 20 percent to 7.4 billion dollars compared to the same period last year, as the manufacturer of crop protection products and seeds announced on Monday. The operating result (EBITDA) fell by 34 percent to 1.2 billion dollars. According to the company, the results are in line with expectations. In the current market environment, measures to improve operational efficiency and productivity were the main focus in order to compensate for the lower volumes and prices.

Syngenta is part of China's Sinochem and is headquartered in Basel. The rival of Bayer, BASF and the American Corteva called off its long-promoted IPO on the Shanghai Stock Exchange last month.

(Report by Paul Arnold, edited by Ralf Banser. If you have any queries, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)