Welcome Back! AgriBusiness Global LATAM Event Draws Nearly 400 to Panama
15 August 2022 
The inaugural AgriBusiness Global LATAM Conference & Summit, held Aug. 2-3, 2022 at the Sheraton Grand in Panama City, Panama, attracted 380 attendees from around the world, underscoring the value of meeting in-person post-pandemic. The event featured two full days of dynamic sessions and speaker panels, which packed the room right up until the close on Wednesday, along with ample time for networking.
“When we created this event, we wanted to offer quality sessions with long networking breaks to balance education and meetings. The ABG LATAM Conference advisory board, made up of experts that live in Latin America, gave great suggestions for sessions presented in both Spanish and English to bring attendees back,” said Renee Targos, editor of AgriBusiness Global™. “Each speaker and panelist offered well-researched information, bringing new insights to attendees, so we couldn’t be more pleased with how this team effort turned out.”
Several panel discussions at the AgriBusiness Global LATAM Conference focused on driving trade and market development in the booming region of Latin America.
Jose Perdomo, president and chief executive of CropLife Latin America, commented, “I was happily surprised at the high quality and current information shared by the speakers, which made my participation and time worthwhile in my role in Latin America.” He added, “I don’t (typically) participate in any of these events due to their more commercial and non-R&D participants. I think that this one had a good balance of new ag technological trends and industry challenges, which gave it the relevance for me that I did not expect and it delivered.”
Here we present some of the top highlights from the event:
1. Biologicals have made outstanding progress in terms of formulations, shelf life, and perception by users, however significant challenges remain in regulatory from region to region. Europe and North America lead the market, but Brazil is climbing two to three times as fast — in 2020, for example, Brazil’s MAPA registered 95 new biologicals. This is a stark contrast to Central America which hasn’t achieved a single registration of a biological, panelists said.
In addition, the lack of regulatory harmonization in import markets differs greatly from China to Japan to the EU, for example, which ripples down to producers’ ability to manage devasting diseases — particularly Black Sigatoka in bananas, as six active ingredients have recently been taken away.
“There is a strong desire from society translated to governance to reduce the unintended consequences of pesticides – not just in Europe,” said panelist Roma Gwynn, chief scientific officer at AgBioScout. “Everybody is at a different stage of that development. I think the direction is very clear.”
At the same time, Gwynn cautioned to “not restrict what biologicals can do by putting them into a box. By taking the approach of mixing biologicals to make hybrids, are we somehow limiting what the technology can do? I think we should be more open and think about what the attributes of the substances are and how we use them to exploit and get the best attributes out of them.”
On the investment side, Stephen Pearce, co-founder and managing partner of Chemovateq Swiss AG Investments, discussed the struggle of agtech companies to succeed: from 2016 to 2020, $13 billion was invested into the sector, of which $3.8 to $4 billion went into the biological space, but the alarming stat is that 75% of those investments either stalled or went bankrupt.
Pearce called attention to the need for more selective types of bioherbicides, an area where there is still very little research. His company has also invested in digital, including sensors and handheld technology for a number of reasons, one being that regulatory barriers are not an issue creating the opportunity for quicker, higher returns.
“Digital has a role complementary to the biological piece and efficacious, conventional chemistry, and it reduces the chemical load to make sure you stay ahead of the curve in terms of what is coming … Why would I, as a farmer want to spray something 10 times when if I had the right tools to do the right interventions I only have to spray three times? We’re trying to take a nested approach to those different things.”
2. Analysis on digital ag in LATAM was integral to the sessions as leaders shared ideas on how to approach the extremely dynamic ag climate. Crop sensing is emerging in LATAM, most notably in Argentina, where GMO crops were adopted before Brazil. In Argentina Trimble has thousands of sensors, which reduce the amount of herbicide sprayed by 95%, and it sees adoption increasing every year, said Luciano Rosolem, LATAM enterprise account manager.
“More than ever farmers are making calculations on ROI. Especially with the lack of products in the market with inputs and fertilizers, we have noticed that farmers are looking for more technology. They always understood that technology helps them to save, but now with prices of inputs they are investing more in technology,” he said.
Panelists in the Ag Tech discussion called for more data sharing to avoid reactionary, emergency-type scenarios in the field. “You don’t always need to know the intra-field variability, you just maybe need to know what your global tree density is and get the right tools. I think this is really important to find these cracks in the armor to reach the small farmer, who often goes into a store and says this is what I need, and takes it home,” said Esteban Quiroz, CTO and technical co-founder, Croper SAS based in Medellin, Colombia.
“I think if they’re willing to share a little bit of data and we find ways of doing that, there’s a whole host of services that suppliers can improve so that the producer can improve his profitability as well.”
3. Managing disruptions and consolidation were the focus of several talks on Day 2. German Alfaro, director general, Greenplants, pointed to the trend of declining agricultural land globally and the impact of Russia’s war on Ukraine on Latin America, which is expected to cost the region heavily, as Brazil imports 80% of its fertilizer, with 20% coming from Russia.
Javier Chavarro, agronomist engineer and independent consultant, noted that LATAM represented a $21.9 billion agrochemical market in 2021, with Brazil claiming the largest share at $13.3 billion and where the largest amount of M&A activity is taking place.
The loss of key active ingredients in the banana production system — including mancozeb potentially this year, chlorothanolil, chlorpyrifos, and in 2023, bifenthrin — underscores the urgent need to find alternatives and deliver biological fungicides, botanical fungicides, and biostimulants.
“The future of ag, not only in LATAM but globally, will rely on how we will be able to bring together traditional chemistries with new alternative products in the countries where we are working,” Chavarro said.
The movement to reduce pesticides and fertilizers through technology is a threat, but it is also an opportunity, Bob Trogele, chief operating officer at AMVAC in Southern California shared.
“Five years ago, no one knew much about drones unless you were talking about Afghanistan. Consumer habits are changing, and precision ag will change this business – inputs will be delivered at a lower rate,” he said. “We’re not selling per liter or gallon, we’re selling a service and solution per acre. If you keep doing it the old way, you’re going to have less money. It’s something to watch.”
Regional updates on China and India were given close attention in presentations by AgriBusiness Global contributor David Li, marketing director at SPM Biosciences in Beijing, and a panel discussion featuring executives from top Indian companies. Abhijit Bose, chief marketing officer at Tagros, noted that Indian manufacturers learned to become more backward integrated during the last two years of the pandemic. Shipping and logistics have stabilized in the last two to four months, although he does not yet see the situation returning to 2019 levels.
Despite the disturbances caused by the pandemic, India has seen its position as a reliable agrochemical supplier rise during that time, panelists remarked.
“India was looking at limited capacity (increases) — not megatons. They had thought the Chinese would (respond) by dropping prices, as that has been happening for the last 10 to 15 years. That is changing a lot,” Atul Churiwal, managing director at Krishi Rasayan Exports Pvt. Ltd. said, adding, “Now we see 10 to 15 companies that in the next two years are making huge upsurges adding major capacities. Most companies are not only making technical, but backup intermediate plays as well. We are more aggressive. The bigger companies and MNCs are also looking at India, and it’s giving us courage and conviction that we can and will compete with China as a leading exporter.”
Li, presenting virtually from China, spoke about drivers and projections for the Chinese agrochemical market. He expects Nutrichem to have more supply coming online in the next two years, while Hailir, the leading prothioconazole producer in China, is on track to increase sales in the LATAM market especially Brazil.
China is phasing out high-toxicity molecules in favor of novel molecules with high efficacy and lower dosages, including L-glufosinate, prothioconazole, and spinosad. Li said Chinese manufacturers will have more patented active ingredients launching into the market under the 14th Five-Year Plan, he said.
“While industry concentration is increasing, price weakness is likely to be a new normal,” Li explained. “If we can exclude the impact of black swan events in 2022, the Chinese agrochemical market will gradually move toward a stable volume and downward price trend by the end of 2022.” He added that China’s glyphosate prices will likely bottom out in August, due to lower raw material costs and weaker global demand, which also leaves room for price concessions to attract long-term, large-scale purchase orders.
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