Mark Douglas
President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director at FMC
Thank you, Michael, and good morning, everyone. Our second quarter results, revenue up 8%, EBITDA up 2% and EPS up 5% year-over-year were slightly ahead of our guidance. These results were fundamentally driven by volume, reflecting robust demand for FMC products around the world. Innovation continues to be a catalyst for growth. New products introduced in the last 12 months contributed $30 million in sales growth in the quarter and our plant health products, including biologicals, posted Q2 sales growth in the high teens. We continue to expect a very strong second half of 2021, driven by robust volume growth. We have lowered our full year earnings guidance due to the continued acceleration of raw material, packaging and logistics costs. We will go into this in more details later.
I'd like to take a moment to provide a COVID-19 update on our business. All our manufacturing facilities and distribution warehouses remain operational and properly staffed. Our research laboratories and greenhouses also have continued to operate throughout the pandemic. We are resuming in-office operations work permitted by local authorities. And in June, we introduced flexible work arrangements to facilitate the return of all our staff to our headquarters in Philadelphia as well as some other locations in adherence with local guidelines. We continue to have 0 transmission of the virus in our facilities, but I want to acknowledge that we have lost employees to the pandemic, and our employees have also lost family members. Thankfully, that number of affected employees has been small. Our thoughts are with employees that have been impacted directly by COVID-19, and we are thankful for everyone who continues to work safely at FMC.
Turning to our Q2 results on slide three. We reported $1.2 billion in second quarter revenue, which reflects an 8% increase on a reported basis and a 4% increase organically. Asia and Latin America posted the largest growth of 20% and 15%, respectively. Our fungicides grew over 50% in the quarter, driven by the Xyway launch in the U.S., and fungicides represented 8% of total sales in Q2 versus 5% of our sales in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA was $347 million, an increase of 2% compared to the prior year period and $2 million above the midpoint of our guidance range. EBITDA margins were 28%, a decrease of 150 basis points compared to the prior year, reflecting the impact of continued and accelerating cost headwinds. Adjusted earnings were $1.81 per diluted share in the quarter, an increase of 5% versus Q2 2020 and also $0.03 above the midpoint of our guidance range.
The year-over-year increase was primarily driven by the increases in EBITDA and lower interest expense. Moving now to slide four. Despite the unfavorable weather conditions in several regions, Q2 revenue increased by 8% versus the prior year, driven by a 4% volume increase and a 4% tailwind from foreign currencies. Pricing was essentially flat year-over-year. Sales in Asia increased 20% year-over-year and 13% organically, driven by double-digit growth in India, Australia, Indonesia and Pakistan. Insecticides contributed the greatest growth, including Altacor for cotton, and herbicide sales were also very strong, driven by share gains in India for soybean and sugarcane applications as well as robust sales in Australia.
In Latin America, sales increased 15% year-over-year and 12% organically. Mexico and Colombia each posted double-digit growth, driven by strength of our products on specialty crops. We also had a shift of diamide partner sales to Latin America from North America, similar to what occurred in Q1, which boosted the year-over-year growth rate. EMEA sales increased 3% year-over-year, but declined 3% organically as FX was a significant tailwind in the period. Diamides grew well, and we saw strong sales of herbicides for cereals and sugar beets. However, this wasn't enough to offset the late start of the spring, which resulted in lost applications for the FMC portfolio that will not be regained during the season.
In North America, sales decreased 7% year-over-year and 8% organically. Similar to Q1, the year-over-year sales decline in Q2 was due to the shift of diamide partner sales from North America to other regions. Excluding revenue from our global diamide partnerships, our U.S. and Canada crop business grew greater than 20%, driven by an approximate $25 million contribution from two new products, Xyway fungicide and Vantacor insect control for specialty crops. Turning now to the second quarter EBITDA bridge on slide five. EBITDA in the quarter was up 2% year-over-year due to the volume contribution of $42 million, largely offset by a $35 million cost headwind. The cost headwind continues to be driven by increases in raw material, packaging and logistic costs and the very modest reversal of some of the temporary cost savings from 2020. Pricing was essentially flat versus prior year.
Turning to our view of the overall market conditions for 2021. We now expect the global crop protection market will be up mid-single digits on a U.S. dollar basis, which is slightly higher than our prior forecast and the most bullish we've been on the overall market for the past few years. The reason for the change is our view that the Latin American market will now grow in the high single digits versus low single digits before. Basic crop fundamentals remain strong, especially in that region. We continue to anticipate mid-single-digit growth in the EMEA market, low to mid-single-digit growth in the Asian market and low single-digit growth in the North American market. Turning to slide six and the review of FMC's full year 2021 and Q3, Q4 earnings outlook. FMC full year 2021 earnings are now expected to be in the range of $6.54 to $6.94 per diluted share, a year-over-year increase of 9% at the midpoint.
This is down $0.31 at the midpoint versus our prior forecast. Consistent with past practice, we do not factor in any benefit from future potential share repurchases in our EPS guidance. Our 2021 revenue forecast remains in the range of $4.9 billion to $5.1 billion, an increase of 8% at the midpoint versus 2020. EBITDA is now expected to be in the range of $1.29 billion to $1.35 billion, representing a 6% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. This is a $50 million reduction at the midpoint compared to our prior forecast due to continued acceleration costs for raw materials, packaging and logistics. This includes spending more to procure certain raw materials and intermediates from alternate sources where there is limited availability at our preferred suppliers.
Despite dry and cold conditions in certain parts of Brazil during Q2, we are bullish for the second half in Latin America, especially for soybeans and cotton. In Brazil, our channel inventories are at more normal levels for this point in the season following the actions we took in Q1 this year. And we already have received nearly 70% of the orders needed to deliver our full year forecast in Brazil. Guidance for Q3 implies year-over-year sales growth of 8% at the midpoint on a reported basis and 7% organically. We are forecasting EBITDA growth of 5% at the midpoint versus Q3 2020, and EPS is forecasted to be up 7% year-over-year. Guidance for Q4 implies year-over-year sales growth of 20% at the midpoint on a reported basis with no FX impact anticipated.
We are forecasting EBITDA growth of 35% at the midpoint versus Q4 2020, and EPS is forecasted to be up 46% year-over-year. It is worth noting that about half of this growth is going to be driven by the return of business we missed in Q4 2020 due to supply chain issues in North America and weather impact in Latin America. Turning to slide seven and full year EBITDA and revenue drivers. Revenue is expected to benefit from 6% volume growth, a 1% contribution from higher prices and a 1% benefit from FX. We continue to expect broad growth across all regions except EMEA and a very strong second half of 2021. We have raised our forecast for 2021 revenue contribution from products launched in the last 12 months to $130 million from $100 million before. This includes launches of Overwatch herbicide, Xyway fungicide as well as Vantacor and Elevest insect controls.
Our EBITDA bridge shows an increase of about $50 million in the expected impact from costs versus our May forecast. We continue our cost control actions to limit the net cost headwind. As we stated throughout the year, the R&D spending in our forecast is what is needed to keep our projects on a critical path to commercialization. But this year-over-year increase will be closer to $20 million rather than the $30 million to $40 million we had previously indicated as we limit overall cost increases. Relative to our prior guidance bridge in May, we raised the anticipated volume contribution and lowered our benefit from pricing to reflect our decision to take volume with our high-margin portfolio.
Moving to slide eight, where you see the Q3 and Q4 drivers. On the revenue line for the third quarter, we are expecting a 6% contribution from volume, 1% contribution from price and 1% benefit from FX. We had a very strong revenue outlook for Q4, driven by five main elements. First, we forecast a strong recovery for our U.S. and Brazil businesses following the weak Q4 2020 in those countries. This contributes about half of the total growth in the quarter. Second, new products will be a major factor. Xyway fungicide, new diamide formulations Elevest and Vantacor, Fluindapyr fungicide for noncrop applications in the U.S., Overwatch herbicide in Australia and Authority NXT herbicide in India. Third, strong crop fundamentals. We expect a strong Q4 in North America and Latin America, driven by good fundamentals for a variety of crops.
In Brazil, this includes cotton, as growers have indicated a 15% increase in hectares for the upcoming season. Fourth, improved market access and expansion into new geographies and crops. This is having a significant impact in India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Eastern Europe and Russia. And finally, fifth, price increases will help offset the FX headwind from last year and the higher costs from raw materials this year. We are already holding orders for Brazil and U.S. that are at higher year-over-year prices. Much of our forecasted Q4 EBITDA growth will come directly from the volume and pricing growth I just described. Although we are seeing a large increase in cost in Q4 on a year-over-year basis, we are taking actions to reduce SG&A and R&D to offset a portion of the raw material and supply chain cost headwinds we are facing. I will now turn the call over to Andrew.