We grew our revenue by 10%, EBITDA by 12%, earnings per share by 17% and importantly, expanded our EBITDA margins despite continuing cost pressures.
New products introduced in the last 12 months continue to gain momentum, and we are now forecasting sales from these products to account for more than 1/3 of our revenue growth this year.
In addition, FMC's Plant Health business had an excellent quarter with 40% year over year growth led by biologicals.
We reported $1.2 billion in third quarter revenue, which reflects a 10% increase on a reported basis and a 9% increase organically.
Growth was broad-based with 11 of our top 20 countries posting double digit growth in the quarter.
We had strong growth in all product categories, led by greater than 20% growth in herbicides.
Adjusted EBITDA was $293 million, an increase of 12% compared to the prior year period and $18 million above the midpoint of our guidance range.
EBITDA margins were 24.6%, an increase of 40 basis points compared to the prior year, driven by mix improvement as well as operational discipline and price increases in all regions.
Adjusted earnings were $1.43 per diluted share in the quarter, an increase of 17% versus Q3 2020.
Relative to our Q3 guidance, the $0.12 beat was driven almost entirely by EBITDA.
Sales in Asia increased 20% year over year and 19% organically, driven by strong diamide sales across the region as well as pricing actions.
In Latin America, sales increased 11% year over year and 9% organically, driven by double digit growth of insecticides in Brazil and Argentina as well as pricing actions across the region.
Plant Health products grew approximately 50% in the region led by biologicals and seed treatment.
EMEA grew revenue 12% and 10% organically, driven by strong demand for our herbicides and diamides across the whole region despite headwinds from registration cancellations.
Our U.S. and Canada branded business grew greater than 20%, driven by strong demand for our diamides and four herbicide applications as well as pricing actions.
Overall, North America sales decreased 6% year over year and 6% organically due to the continued shift of diamide global partner sales in the quarter from North America to other regions as we have described in previous calls.
Despite continuing supply issues across the industry, FMC's third quarter revenue increased by 10% versus prior year, driven by a 9% contribution from volume.
Gross prices increased 1% in the quarter as our most recent pricing actions went into effect.
EBITDA in the third quarter was up 12% year over year, primarily due to broad based volume gains.
We also had a $12 million contribution in the quarter from price increases as invoiced to customers.
We still expect second half cost to be consistent with previous guidance and FX was a $10 million tailwind in the quarter.
We are raising FMC's full year 2021 earnings guidance to the range of $6.59 to $6.99 per diluted share, a year over year increase of 10% at the midpoint, reflecting the impact of share repurchases completed year to date.
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 remains in the range of $1.29 billion to $1.35 billion, representing 6% year over year growth at the midpoint.
Guidance for Q4 implies year over year revenue growth of 19% at the midpoint on a reported basis with no FX impact anticipated.
We forecast EBITDA growth of 29% at the midpoint versus Q4 2020 and earnings per share is forecasted to be up 41% year over year.
Approximately 3/4 of the EBITDA growth is driven by the return of business missed in Q4 2020 due to supply chain disruptions in North America and weather impact in Latin America.
Revenue is expected to benefit from 6% volume growth, a 1% price contribution from higher prices and a 1% benefit from FX.
We have increased our forecast again for revenue from products launched in 2021.
These sales are now expected to contribute $140 million in year over year growth, up from our last forecast of $130 million and our initial view of $100 million.
Interest expense for the quarter was $33.1 million, down $2.4 million from the prior year period, driven by the benefit of lower debt balances and lower LIBOR rates.
We continue to expect interest expense to be between $130 million and $135 million for the full year.
Our effective tax rate on adjusted earnings for the third quarter was 13.5% as anticipated and in line with our expectation for a full year tax rate between 13% and 14%.
Gross debt at quarter end was $3.4 billion, down roughly $400 million from the prior quarter.
Gross debt to trailing 12-month EBITDA was 2.7 times at the end of the third quarter while net debt to EBITDA was 2.5 times.
Free cash flow for the third quarter was $300 million.
Nearly 50% of this year's capital addition support capacity expansion.
We are maintaining our expectation for free cash flow in a range of $480 million to $570 million, with continued expectations for seasonally strong cash flow in the fourth quarter.
We returned $262 million to shareholders in the quarter via $62 million in dividends and $200 million of share repurchases, buying back 2.1 million shares in the quarter at an average price of $95.26 per share.
We have now repurchased just over three million shares this year, reducing our share count by nearly 2.5% since the beginning of the year.
Year to date, we've returned $486 million to shareholders through dividends and repurchases.
For the full year, we continue to anticipate paying dividends of roughly $250 million and to repurchase $350 million to $450 million of FMC shares.
Taking all this into consideration, our current early thinking would suggest year over year revenue growth of 5% to 7%, EBITDA growth of 7% to 9% and earnings per share growth at over 10%, in line with our long range plan.

Summary:
We reported $1.2 billion in third quarter revenue, which reflects a 10% increase on a reported basis and a 9% increase organically.
Adjusted earnings were $1.43 per diluted share in the quarter, an increase of 17% versus Q3 2020.
Sales in Asia increased 20% year over year and 19% organically, driven by strong diamide sales across the region as well as pricing actions.
We are raising FMC's full year 2021 earnings guidance to the range of $6.59 to $6.99 per diluted share, a year over year increase of 10% at the midpoint, reflecting the impact of share repurchases completed year to date.
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.
Guidance for Q4 implies year over year revenue growth of 19% at the midpoint on a reported basis with no FX impact anticipated.
We have increased our forecast again for revenue from products launched in 2021.