These aren’t company names that typically come up on coffee row, but a large deal is pending among two giants in off-patent crop protection products. The Makhteshim Agan Group, considered the world leader in branded off-patent products, has a letter of intent to acquire Albaugh Inc., a privately held leading manufacturer of off-patent products operating in the Americas. Makhteshim Agan is headquarted in Israel. Here in Canada, the company is more recognizable by the name MANA, which stands for Makhtreshim Agan of North America. Albaugh Inc. was founded by Dennis Albaugh and is a leading off-patent player in the U.S., Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. This is a big league acquisition involving cash, notes, the acquisition of shares and the assumption of debt that totals well over a billion dollars. If you asked most Canadian farmers to list the top of mind crop protection companies, they’d probably throw out names like BASF, Bayer CropScience, Monsanto, Dow and Syngenta. While not so top of mind, MANA is a large and growing player dealing specifically in off-patent products. I’m Kevin Hursh.