MOBILE, Alabama – Bayer CropScience announced plans Wednesday to construct a global herbicide production facility in Mobile that would employ 180 people with average salaries of $75,000 by 2015.

The proposed project – for which the Mobile Industrial Development Board approved nearly $32 million in tax abatements Wednesday morning – represents a conservative investment of $396 million and would be constructed on property leased from Evonik should it proceed.

“This is very much the type of project we want to see,” Troy Wayman, the chamber’s vice president of economic development, told the board prior to unanimous approval of the 10-year abatements.

“This would be beneficial to the existing industry (with whom) Bayer is looking to co-locate. It’s a great company to have in our international group with a long history of environmental stewardship and community involvement,” Wayman said.

In fact, Bayer CropScience – the subgroup of Leverkusen, Germany-based Bayer AG responsible for the global conglomerate’s agricultural business – is celebrating 150 years in 2013 of furthering its “Science for a Better Life” mission.

Specifically, the company plans to construct a plant dedicated to production of glufosinate-ammonium herbicide for worldwide distribution to combat glyphosate-resistant weeds. A 2012 Stratus Agri-Marketing survey of U.S. farmers indicated nearly 50 percent of all growers surveyed confirmed the existence of glyphosate-resistant weeds on their farms, compared with only 34 percent reported in in 2011.

The numbers

Wayman said only slightly less than $15 million of the $32 million in total abatements approved Wednesday would be realized during the project’s first year.

A cost-benefit analysis provided by the chamber, however, indicates the Bayer project would generate an estimated $8.2 million in taxes unaffected by the abatements in the first year alone, and about $2.3 million of that would benefit Mobile County Public Schools directly through ad valorem taxes. Those estimated figures soar to $91.2 million and $46.7 million over the next 20 years.

Patrick Lozon, vice president of North American procurement for Bayer CropScience, likened the new herbicide to new-era antibiotics phasing out the use of old standbys to which many people have built up immunities over the years.

“Weed resistance (to common herbicides) has become prevalent in soy beans and corn. Weeds compete with the crops for water and nutrients. Less weeds mean more crops. We have to have something to help our growers and our agricultural community,” Lozon told the board.

“Right now, we can’t produce enough (glufosinate-ammonium). We need to build additional capacity,” Lozon said.

Negotiations ‘progressing well’

Although Bayer officials indicated during the meeting they were still considering another potential southeastern site for the facility, the company issued a statement about an hour after the tax abatements were approved stating its “intention to pursue plans” to construct the facility near Mobile.

The statement also noted the new facility will “contribute significantly” to company’s goal of more than doubling the active ingredient’s global capacity and set an anticipated “start-up” for the fourth quarter of 2015, allowing growers adequate time to prepare for the 2016 season.

“Discussions with the local authorities in Alabama are progressing well, and Bayer CropScience is confident that it will be able to initiate the next planning steps for the new facility soon,” the statement reads.

“In planning this facility, we are responding to urgent calls by farmers and agronomists for an alternative weed control technology to help combat the increasing problem of weed resistance to glyphosate-based products,” said Liam Condon, Bayer CropScience’s chief executive officer, in the press release.

The company will market glufosinate-ammonium as the trademarked Liberty herbicide and encourage its use in tandem with the trademarked LibertyLink seed.

“The rotation of crops, herbicide tolerant traits and herbicidal modes of action are important elements of a sustainable cropping approach,” Condon added.

Bayer CropScience currently manufactures the next-generation herbicide at production facilities in Frankfurt, Germany, and Muskegon, Mich., but projected demand is expected to quickly outpace the existing production capacity.