Cibus pushes Latin America rice launch to 2028, sees $20M-$40M biofragrance opportunity

Mosaic Biosciences, a unit of The Mosaic Company, launched Renuvis Enzara, an enzyme-based treatment designed to speed up crop residue breakdown, on August 17, less than two weeks after Mosaic reported a second-quarter net loss of $273 million, a sharp reversal from the $411 million profit it posted in the same quarter of 2025. The product uses endoglucanase enzyme technology that works in soil as cold as 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Mosaic also trimmed its 2026 capital expenditure outlook to $1.2 billion from an earlier $1.25 billion, sold its Carlsbad, New Mexico, potash mine during the quarter, and lined up a $1 billion term loan to refinance and extend its short-term commercial paper, while keeping its regular dividend at $0.22 per share. Second-quarter revenue came in at $2.8 billion, but the company posted an operating loss of $36 million and adjusted EBITDA fell to $407 million from $566 million a year earlier, with Phosphate swinging to an operating loss of $104 million from a loss of $8 million and Mosaic Fertilizantes moving from operating earnings of $109 million to an operating loss of $41 million. Potash was the one stable segment, generating $278 million in adjusted EBITDA, essentially matching the $278 million it produced a year earlier.

Syngenta Crop Protection AG and Amoéba have announced an exclusive supply and distribution agreement for a next-generation biocontrol fungicide, formulation AXP20, targeting cereal diseases across the European Union, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, and Switzerland. The binding long-term partnership, which converts a November 2025 memorandum of understanding, covers all cereals except corn and aims to control septoria tritici blotch and yellow rust, which together affect an estimated 9 to 12 million hectares annually. First market registrations are expected in the third quarter of 2028, with initial sales in core EU markets by the end of that year for spring 2029 use. The product, based on the lysate of the amoeba Willaertia magna C2c Maky, received EU approval in 2025 and is classified under FRAC Group BM02 with low resistance risk. Amoéba's managing director, Jean-Marc Petat, called the agreement a defining milestone, noting that Syngenta's screening selected AXP20 as the highest performing biofungicide among many biological solutions.

China Resources Double-Crane announced plans to acquire a combined 23.50% stake in Lier Chemical through a cash payment, with a total consideration of 5.656 billion yuan, and will gain control of Lier Chemical upon completion. Specifically, it will purchase a 20% stake from Sichuan Jiuyuan Investment Holding Group and a 3.50% stake from Sichuan Huacai Technology, at a transfer price of 30.07 yuan per share, totaling 188 million shares. Lier Chemical is the largest domestic producer of chloropyridine pesticide technicals and formulations, and also a large-scale producer of glufosinate and refined glufosinate technicals. China Resources Double-Crane has been building its presence in the biomanufacturing sector since 2022 and has stockpiled multiple synthetic biology pesticide products but lacks an industrialization platform. This acquisition can rapidly achieve the industrialization of its technology and products, building a second growth curve in synthetic biology.