Experts Share Insights on Latin American Agribusiness Market During ABG LIVE! Webinar
3 May 2023 The Latin American market is the place to be for planting new business. AgriBusiness Global LIVE! hosted a webinar in April speaking with four experts based in Latin America about new developments in regulations, mergers and acquisitions, chemical crop protection, and biological products. You can watch a recording of the webinar in English or Spanish.
Some highlights of the webinar included Javier Fernandez, Legal Counsel and Director of Regulatory Affairs, CropLife Latin America giving an overview of the regulatory changes for agrochemicals happening in Mexico, Costa Rica, Columbia, and Chile. Fernandez also talked about how European Union regulations are affecting Latin American growers.
Juan Carlos Toledo Rivera, Biologicals Regional Product Manager for DISAGRO, commented on biological products being used in Central America and Columbia, with a focus on what growers of rice, banana, coffee, and sugar cane are using in terms of biological products as more chemical crop protection chemicals are banned from Latin American countries.
However, Toledo Rivera said that biologicals aren’t being adopted as quickly as expected due to the flat prices of exported produce. He said growers can’t afford to risk a failed crop with an experimental treatment. For bananas, Black Sigatoka, a leaf spot disease, there hasn’t been a biological product that works as well as agrochemicals. Toledo Rivera said DISAGRO is conducting studies to give growers information on biologicals to help to increase adoption.
Diego Taube, Director of Chempro SA, gave an update on Argentina covering how droughts have affected food production. Taube gave a production forecast for 2022/2023 for wheat, barley, corn, sorgam, soya, and sunflower with alarming lows. “Imagine losing 50% of your crop, that means 50% less exports,” said Taube. “The country will be losing $21 million in exported products.”
Taube explored other areas that included agrochemical regulation in Argentina and influences from other LATAM countries like Brazil.
Covering M&A in Latin America, Javier Chavarro, an independent consultant, talked about mutli-nationals companies buying biologicals companies located in Latin America. He said activity has reduced because of the offerings, but that larger companies are looking for regional solutions.
To watch the full one-hour Latin American Update webinar on AgriBusiness Global LIVE! in Spanish or English, visit AgriBusiness Global LIVE! for access to presentation extras and information on other webinars.
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