MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bayer says farmers remain loyal to glyphosate herbicides

“There is extremely strong support among farmers, who are imploring us to keep this crop chemical on the market,” CEO Werner Baumann told journalists

Bayer, the world's largest maker of seeds and pesticides, said U.S. farmers were unperturbed by lawsuits seeking damages from Bayer for an alleged cancer-causing effect of glyphosate-based herbicides.

“There is extremely strong support among farmers, who are imploring us to keep this crop chemical - which is systemically relevant for the preparation of fields - on the market,” Chief Executive Werner Baumann told journalists in a conference call on Wednesday.

He added third-quarter herbicide sales were roughly on par with the year-earlier level.

Bayer, which relies for most of its Crop Science business on U.S. and Brazilian farmers, is now facing 42,700 U.S. plaintiffs blaming its glyphosate-based weed-killers for their cancer, more than twice the tally in July, raising the stakes in the group's efforts to reach a settlement.