Dive Brief:

• Bayer CropScience sees an opportunity in helping the U.S. fruit and produce industry fight pests and disease. Bayer, a major producer of fungicides, herbicides and insecticides for use with commodity crops, has created a new U.S. division to drive research into fruit and vegetable production.
• The new division, based in North Carolina, initially will target citrus, tree fruit, vegetables, potatoes, nuts and viticulture.
• Bayer is already a player in produce in America, albeit a small one. But one of the company's newest products -- the fungacide brandnamed Luna -- has been found effective in fighting a number of diseases and in extending the shelf life of apples and cherries.

Dive Insight:

No doubt Bayer is correct that the market for their products is growing here in the U.S. That's because no other area of agriculture is facing such extensive, species-ending threats as produce -- particularly citrus. Here's hoping that Bayer has something up its corporate sleeve to help in the battle against citrus greening and some of the other gross threats to fruit.