Despite Growth, Old Perceptions Inhibit Adoption of Biopesticides

There are more than 60 companies offering more than 1,400 biopesticide products, creating a powerful wave that will continue to build — and for good reasons.

In 2015 alone, the estimated market for biopesticides worldwide was estimated to be $2.7 billion. Even though biopesticides are currently less than 5% of the global crop protection market, the estimated growth is conservatively projected at 14% to 17% annually reaching $4.1 billion in 2018. This makes it the fastest-growing market segment in crop protection worldwide.

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Bill Dunham, consultant for DunhamTrimmer, a marketing firm focused exclusively on the global biological and natural product plant protection and plant health market sector, predicts that in less than three decades, the market revenue convergence of biopesticides with synthetic pesticides will come to fruition.

Latin America, including Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, leads the growth in biopesticides. DunhamTrimmer’s market research shows the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for Latin America from 2012-2018 sitting at 27.9% with the next closest markets of North America, Europe, and Asia hovering between 18% and 19%.

“The Latin American market is also enjoying the most investment with major corporations setting up subsidiaries there,” says Dunham. “The countries most supportive are the ones that have a large developing middle class — Argentina, Chile, Mexico. In developing countries where people are challenged in meeting basic sustenance, biopesticides are not as important.”

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Pam Marrone, CEO of Marrone Bio Innovations, explains that Asia and Europe are particularly receptive markets for biopesticides due to strict regulations on residues.

“As more countries become concerned globally about the effect of residues and adopt greater restrictions accordingly, we see a great opportunity for expanding our market share as an industry,” she says.

But, according to Dunham, the leading factor propelling biopesticide sales is really consumer concerns about pesticide residues. Supporting his theory is a recent Consumer Reports survey that found pesticides to be a leading cause of concern among food health issues for 85% of Americans.

Overcoming Reluctance

The upside to biopesticide use is well known throughout the industry, including minimal impact on non-target organisms, reduced development of resistance, organically-approved status for organic growers and consumers’ health considerations, yet there is still a great reluctance for their use, especially among row crop growers as well as high-value specialty crops managers.

“One charge frequently leveled at biopesticide products is that they are too expensive,” says Timothy Damico, Executive VP, NAFTA at Certis USA. Like conventional pesticides, some biocontrols do cost more to use per acre. But when biopesticides can solve a problem in the field, the products become cost-effective. For example, here’s a real world scenario of biopesticides: Growers are willing to purchase a low-load copper product that is twice the price of a traditional copper fungicide to solve re-entry interval and crop phytotoxicity challenges.

Another leading charge is farmers’ risk aversion with respect to new, untested crop protection technologies. Because conventional pesticides have been the mainstay of crop protection for more than 50 years, there is a wealth of experience that gives farmers and growers confidence in their effectiveness.

STK Stockton, an Israel-based company that develops and markets botanical-based solutions for food protection, finds a fair share of farmers reluctant to using its biologicals.

“We find the main reasons for that are the perceptions of such products as being less effective, and at the same time, more expensive, which is usually not true,” says STK Stockton CEO Guy Elitzur. “The work that we do in the field showing great level of efficacy in conventional programs together with the cutting-edge science we are bringing from our R&D base in Israel, assists us in accelerating the adoption process and bringing more farmers to use our products.”

“Plant pathogens and pests would need to undergo immense physical, biochemical, physiological, and genetic changes to develop resistance to biopesticides,” explains Matthew S. Krause, Ph.D., BioWorks Product Development Manager, Plant Disease Management. “Therefore, the loss of effective biopesticides due to development of resistant pests and plant pathogens is highly unlikely.”

Embedded Skepticism

Marrone explains that biopesticides companies have greater hurdles to overcome in terms of educating their growers and distributors. “Our industry still battles embedded skepticism about biopesticides, and it’s incumbent upon us to aggressively and continuously educate our potential customers about the benefits of our products,” she says. “Biopesticides are now performing on par with their chemical counterparts and also enhance programs (better yields and quality) when integrated in, yet that’s a message that is not always conveyed strongly enough. We also have to work hard to support and supplement our distribution networks.”

STK Stockton finds that bringing biopesticide products like its flagship Timorex Gold into any market is a long and complicated education and training process. This plant extract-based biofungicide is used by farmers in over 30 countries, including the US, China, Spain, Australia and all throughout Latin America for about 15 different fruits and vegetables, coffee, rice and more.

One such tactic more palatable to crop growers’ risk aversion is product hybridization. STK Stockton is one such pesticide company introducing hybrid products combining biopesticides with the traditional. Earlier this year, it introduced its first hybrid fungicide, Regev, with initial distribution in Latin America.

STK Stockton finds that row crop farmers are facing real challenges with resistance to some of their pesticide chemicals’ active ingredients. “The grower can use the biopesticide very easily, just like his other traditional synthetic pesticides,” explains Elitzur. “Many row crop farmers are familiar with the known chemicals’ AIs, feeling more comfortable with a product that combines a known AI together with an innovative biological one. The hybrid product can be used flexibly in various places over a conventional spraying program, thereby lowering the general chemical load and managing resistance challenges.”

Elitzur looks into his crystal ball a few decades from now: “When the biopesticides and synthetic pesticides markets converge in a little more than three decades, perpetuity is defined as the need for ‘perpetual production of food.’ The need for perpetuity in the food chain is a mainstay in sustainable agriculture programs. Ensuring perpetuity in the years to come will require ‘bridge solutions,’ enabling growers to move from a toxic pesticides system to a healthier, zero residue, biological-based system.”

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