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10 Sugar Producer MAY 2021 Off the Top Syngenta Acquires Leading Biologicals Company On the heels of a rapidly growing biologicals market — which is expected to nearly double in size over the next five years — Syngenta has acquired Valagro, a leading biologicals company. With more than 700 employees, 13 subsidiaries and eight production sites worldwide, Valagro will continue to operate as an independent brand in the market, leveraging the resources of Syngenta to accelerate its innovation and growth. Valagro's well-established portfolio and capabilities complement the current range of Syngenta biostimulants and biocontrols and add opportunities for farmers to meet agronomic challenges through the innovative solutions in the Syngenta Crop Protection portfolio. FMC Invests in Scanit Technologies FMC Ventures, the venture capital arm of FMC Corporation, has invested in Scanit Technologies. Scanit's SporeCam instrument captures physical spores in the air, processes the spore data through machine learning, and alerts growers when harmful disease spore count reaches certain benchmarks. In parallel, FMC is expanding its precision agriculture solutions focused on comprehensive grower crop protection. The goal of these combined efforts is to deploy highly accurate predictive modeling based on real-time data to help ensure the right crop protection products are applied precisely where and when they are needed to improve sustainability, optimize crop yield and enhance grower return on investment. SporeCam provides spore data in addition to microclimate data including temperature, relative humidity, dew point and more, all at the farm level. FMC Corporation will retain a minority stake in Scanit Technologies. Motion Announces Promotions Motion Industries, Inc., a leading distributor of maintenance, repair and operation replacement parts, and a premier provider of industrial technology solutions, announces the promotion of James Howe to executive vice president of eCommerce, sales excellence, strategic pricing and corporate accounts; and of Joe Limbaugh to executive vice president of supply chain, operations support, marketing and enterprise excellence. Both promotions are effective April 1. Howe most recently served as Motion's senior vice president of eCommerce, sales excellence and strategic pricing throughout 2020, and as of Jan. 1, 2021, took on the additional responsibilities of Motion's corporate accounts group. He has been with Motion since 2002 and has held numerous field roles.. Joe Limbaugh began his career with Motion in 1983 in Bourbonnais, Ill. During his time with Motion, Limbaugh has held numerous field and corporate positions, giving him a unique perspective on Motion and its customers. UPL Joins UN Global Compact UPL Ltd. announces its commitment to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) initiative — a voluntary leadership platform for the development, implementation and disclosure of responsible business practices. With this announcement, UPL joins thousands of other companies globally committed to taking responsible business actions to create the world we all want. The UNGC is a call to companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with 10 universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti- corruption, and to take action in support of UN goals and issues embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals. Launched in 2000, the UNGC is the largest corporate sustainability initiative in the world, with more than 9,500 companies and 3,000 non-business signatories based in over 160 countries. James Howe Joe Limbaugh