SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany) held a groundbreaking ceremony in Ludwigshafen for its new fermentation plant for crop protection products. The plant is expected to go into operation in the second half of 2025 and will manufacture biological fungicides and biological seed treatment products. BASF also plans to produce the main building block of Inscalis, a novel insecticide derived from a fungal strain. In the production microorganisms are used to convert renewable raw materials such as glucose into the desired products – a process known as fermentation. The plant will employ 30 people in production, logistics, engineering and maintenance.

During the ceremony, Dr. Uwe Liebelt, (President European Site and Verbund Management), Heather Remley (President, Engineering & Technical Expertise, Ludwigshafen) and Christian Aucoin (Senior Vice President, Global Operations at BASF Agricultural Solutions) buried a time capsule, commemorating the groundbreaking day of the plant. It included a photo of the project team, a daily newspaper, the canteen menu of the day and a panda bear as a sign of the bond with Chengdu in China, where a significant part of the detailed engineering for the plant took place.