Plant Impact's flagging shares rebounded 10% after the agrichemicals group said it had started field trials with Syngenta in Brazil, in a move which could open up one of the world's biggest agricultural markets.

Plant Impact, whose sprays are aimed at posing less environmental risk than conventional products, said that success in the trials would initially open up its portfolio to farmers growing 3m hectares of soybeans, 1m hectares of corn and 300,000 hectares each of coffee and cotton.

The potential market in Brazil - the world's top coffee grower, second-ranked soybean producer and third biggest corn farmer - was some 38m hectares, making the country a "major opportunity".

For Syngenta, the world's biggest agrichemicals group, the move comes amid a drive among sprays company to protect margins in the face of growing competition from makers of generic products.

'Like Norton and Microsoft'

Peter Blezard, the Plant Impact chief executive, said the trials represented "an excellent development for the company", adding that it was "tremendous news" to have signed up Syngenta.

A successful outcome would see Plant Impact's Cat spray, which promotes calcium uptake, and Pint nitrogen promotion product sold alongside the Syngenta range.

"It's a bit like selling Norton Security software with Microsoft Word," a person familiar with Plant Impact's thinking told Agrimoney.com.

The initiative will also promote a drive to expand from the market garden sector, where much of Plant Impact's early work was done, into row crops, which offer significantly greater revenue potential.

The group is undertaking separate trials for its products on corn, cotton, oilseed rape, potatoes, soybeans and wheat, a move which Plant Impact said "significantly expands its market potential".

Shares revive 

London broker Allenby said that Plant Impact had, by developing a relationship with Syngenta as well as its longer-standing tie-up with Japan's Arysta Life Sciences, demonstrated their ability to continue the commercialisation of the product base".

Plant Impact shares, which Allenby rated a "buy", closed 6.5% higher at 16.5p in London.

Nonetheless, the stock has fallen by more than one-third this year, hitting an 18-month low of 14.0p last week.