Syngenta plant in Louisiana enters busiest time of year

Syngenta said on Thursday that its agri-chemical plant is operating 24 hours a day so it can meet grower demand for crop-protection products.

As planting season begins, growers are looking for help to protect their crops from pests and to boost production. Syngenta’s plant in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, manufactures more than 100 products — mostly herbicides, with some insecticides and seed safeners. Because the demand is so high for many of these products, several of them are made in giant tanks before being packaged and shipped across the country.

“Getting products out and delivered on time to different parts of the world requires careful and continuous planning,” Josie Anderson, the plant's site logistics manager, said. “The logistics group works closely with the production group, meeting on a weekly basis to determine the production plan on a day-by-day basis. The logistics group then takes those total volume numbers, determines the best pack size (bottles, drums, mini-bulk or bulk) and ships orders by train or truck to their final destinations.”

Most production at St. Gabriel immediately goes right into trucks so it can be shipped quickly to customers in the United States and those in the more than 90 countries served by Syngenta. Large freighters at the Port of New Orleans carry the products to other nations.