Will the Macrobial Biocontrols Market for Outdoor Crops Continue Its Momentum in 2024?
Editor’s note: Each year, 2BMonthly’s State of the Industry feature includes a Q&A with executives from leading biocontrol and biostimulants companies worldwide. The 2023 feature touched on a wide range of prevailing topics including the biologicals M&A climate, critical success factors for scaling biologicals companies, and the ongoing challenges facing biocontrol registrations in the EU. In the excerpt below, experts offered their insight on what’s next for macrobial biocontrols after a significant expansion into outdoor crops.
Q: We have seen a dramatic expansion of macrobial biocontrols into outdoor crops and related developments of application and release devices for macrobiocontrol, food for predators, etc. Where do you see this trend going?
Ludwik Pokorny, CEO, Bioline: The innovations in release systems (mechanization, drones, encapsulation, spray, robotics) coupled with precision farming digitalization (right doses, right place, right time) will allow more and more for outdoor crops applications of beneficial insects, with rapid adoption in industrial crops and orchards.
Vittorio Veronelli, CEO, CBC Biogard: The use of beneficials is probably the oldest and most elegant way to control other pests and modern technologies can help to simplify their application also in open fields. This is certainly boosting the macrobial biocontrol market and we’ll see steady growth in future.
Peter Maes, Chief Strategy Officer, Koppert: Koppert is one of the few companies able to offer comprehensive solutions in both microbial and macrobial biocontrol. Our approach revolves around discerning the optimal solution tailored to each grower’s specific needs, whether that involves micro or macro solutions. In instances where, for example, regulatory constraints create voids in the market, macrobials often emerge as swift and practical solutions.
Macrobial biocontrols (e.g., trichogramma species) have been sold in outdoor markets for decades. Koppert has been working with outdoor clients for years. Our experience tells us that adopting macrobial solutions is a gradual process primarily reliant on establishing grower confidence in the technology. Different from indoor crops, the limitations of one growing season per year in outdoor settings constrain the speed of this adoption.
Looking ahead, as growers become more acquainted with the benefits, we anticipate a gradual uptick in utilizing macrobial solutions across a broader range of crops. We aim to promote macrobial solutions and collaboratively facilitate a transition towards a more sustainable agricultural model. It’s about nurturing mutual understanding, fostering trust, and collectively steering the agricultural community toward sustainable practices.
Loading ...Carlos Rodríguez-Villa Förster, Managing Director, AlgaEnergy: I believe it has great potential to continue growing, but that growth necessarily needs to be accompanied by coordinated strategies that combine different tools to allow naturally balancing the ecosystems, and that’s very complex and requires a very granular assessment on a case-specific basis. That said, I expect the trend to continue.
View more expert insight on the state of the biologicals industry here.
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