Syngenta Plants Tour:

Innovation made in Switzerland

Now a global company helping farmers around the world grow the food we need, Syngenta’s roots in Switzerland go back over 250 years. From our headquarters to innovation discovery to large-scale production, Syngenta keeps a strong presence in Switzerland.

Join a tour behind the scenes and get to know our colleagues from plants across the country who reveal how innovation is at the heart of what we do to solve agriculture’s challenges of today and tomorrow.

With Swiss roots going back over two centuries, Syngenta continues to practice innovation in Switzerland and is headquartered in Basel, a historical birthplace of chemical industries. What support do farmers need around the world? Embark on a tour of our plants across the country, following our innovations from their conception and testing in Stein and Les Barges, their product development in Münchwilen, to their production in Muttenz, Kaisten and Monthey.

Basel has been the starting ground for chemical innovation for the past 250 years. Born here, Syngenta is headquartered in Basel, where our global functions, such as Finance, Regulatory, HR, Strategy, Communications, Marketing, IT and many more, work together with their colleagues around the world to support farmers in feeding the world.

How can science and technology meet to help agriculture? Stein, our research and development center in Switzerland, is where chemists and biologists come together to find solutions to the challenges farmers face in ensuring sustainable agriculture and global food safety. It can take between 10 and 12 years for a molecule to become one of these solutions - discover how it all begins in Stein.

Münchwilen is our global Product Development plant, hosting all Syngenta Crop Protection’s portfolio as they take promising molecules to the next stage of development. Indeed, from large-scale exploration to safe and sustainable large-scale production, chemicals like medicine, cosmetics or, at Syngenta crop protection products, go through a formulation process and who better to explain this than the experts who do it every day?

The fully automated site of Kaisten is unique for Syngenta, as it covers the global demand for a key ingredient of our products. Highly specialized in what they do, Kaisten colleagues take to heart ensuring they pass on their knowledge and experience in training the next generation of workers. Gain an insight into what they do and why they believe in working for Syngenta.

Monthey is a leading innovative production site and the largest in Switzerland. At this tour stop of the Plants Tour, tune in on the reasons why our colleagues embrace recent technologies like artificial intelligence in the production chain, establish a new generation of skilled workers through trainings and apprenticeships, and have sustainability and innovation as core operational standards.

Do you know what a Field Station is? Research demands a lot of testing which we upscale from the labs in Stein to the Field Station of Les Barges to make sure high-potential innovations are developed following Syngenta’s sustainability, safety, and efficacy standards. Meet our field scientists in Les Barges and discover how their work takes us one step closer to finding solutions for farmers worldwide.

Muttenz specializes in NAIS, new active ingredient sourcing, a process through which we search for ameliorations we can bring to production. A little-known fact about the Muttenz facility is that it is set up to use gravity as a driving force through buildings floors, moving the production process from one step to another with less energy. Clever right? Our colleagues in Muttenz are well-suited to tell you more.