In 1998, the Japanese chemical giant Sumitomo Chemical Company, based in Tokyo, took the decision to establish an office in South Africa. They recruited Mr. John Mansfield to set up this company, and Philagro South Africa (Pty) Ltd was born. For the first few months, the staff comprised of only 5 people.
At the time the Company may have been new, but the products which were distributed by Philagro SA were already very well known in the agricultural world; Nemesis, Rizolex, Sumisclex and Sumicidin Super (to name just a few) have all earned the respect in the tough world of agricultural remedies.
Soon after the establishment of Philagro SA, Sumitomo Chemical Co. acquired the agricultural division of Abbott Laboratories, and Valent Biosciences became a fully fledged part of Philagro SA. Apart from the addition of 3 personnel to Philagro SA, the company now also distributed DiPel, ProGibb and the other range of products from Abbott Laboratories.
Since then Philagro SA were tasked with the distribution of the products of FMC Corporation (USA), Aquamarine, AlzChem (previously Degussa), Sumitomo Corporation and certain products from Cheminova.