Farm Hannong's non-selective herbicide gains approval for US sale

[Photo provided by Farm Hannong]

Farm Hannong, the pesticides and fertilizer making subsidiary of South Korea’s LG Chem Ltd., has won approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for sale of its new molecule “Terrad'or” as a non-selective herbicide to gain foothold in the global market.

The company said on Tuesday the EPA okayed registration of Terrad'or as a non-selective herbicide in the United States. This is the first time for a Korean company to gain approval for registration and sale of a non-selective herbicide for edible crops in the U.S., where strict regulations on such products are applied.

Before Terrad’or, only one Korean herbicide product had succeeded in gaining approval for sale in the U.S. but that product is for grass and lawn. Non-selective herbicides are used to eliminate weeds in lands for plant or crop farming.

Following the EPA’s approval, Farm Hannong plans to ship $1 million worth Terrad’or to the U.S. in the first batch starting December. It is seeking to steadily expand the export volume.

It also expects its export to the U.S. can lead to Terrad’or’s inroads into other overseas markets.

“The global non-selective herbicide market is estimated at 10 trillion won ($8.61 billion), of which the U.S. market takes up 2 trillion won. The latest achievement in the U.S. will help us accelerate forays into other global markets,” said a company official.

Farm Hannong aims to export Terrad'or to 25 countries by 2024.

Farm Hannong has invested 40 billion won ($34.4 million) in research and development of non-selective herbicide products since 2005 and first launched Terrad’or in Korea in March 2018. The U.S. registration came after two and a half years of a complicated review.

To lead the global non-selective herbicide market, Farm Hannong currently is working on obtaining related patents for Terrad'or in near 30 countries. Product registration has completed in three countries – Korea, Sri Lanka and the U.S.

LG Chem, buoyed by the achievement, also is aiming to become one of the global top 10 in the green bio sector.

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