Leading Biological Organizations Survive and Thrive Through the Pandemic

The grow must go on.

Despite a worldwide pandemic that forced millions out of work, farmers still needed to produce food. Agriculture was one of the few industries deemed essential by the U.S. Government, and many others around the world, and therefore was left relatively unscathed by rules and restrictions that plagued many other industries. That doesn’t mean that agriculture, and the organizations that service it, were unaffected by COVID-19.

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AgriBusiness Global reached out to a pair of associations dedicated to help the manufacturers and distributors of biological products to find out how they and their member companies managed the disruption of the past year and a half.

For the past several years, biological products market has grown to new heights in revenue, adoption rates, and efficacy, which perhaps is what drives the first two items in that list.

The Biological Products Industry Alliance (BPIA) stated mission is “advancing sustainability through biological solutions.” AgriBusiness Global interviewed BPIA Executive Director, Keith Jones, to learn how the organization’s member companies have survived what appears to be the worst of the pandemic.

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“Our members were impacted by the pandemic in the same way as many other businesses,” Jones says. “When things were at their worst, some operations had to be curtailed or even suspended. As things continue to open, our members are gradually ramping up activity. The biggest impact for BPIA was not being able to bring people together in-person the way we like to so that they can network. We adapted like everyone else.”

Not surprisingly, the most disruption appeared to occur in the early days when uncertainty and fear were higher. And that sense of “what’s next” was certainly universal.

“The distribution of invertebrate biocontrol across borders within Europe was difficult initially but resolved over the course of the first few weeks,” says Jennifer Lewis, Executive Director, International Biocontrol Manufacturers Association (IBMA).

As the early weeks turned into months, organizations and their member companies began to adapt to the ever-changing situation. IBMA’s members dealt with the “temporary” roadblocks, Lewis says and have been able to manage through the challenges. BPIA’s members have done the same.

Much of what has been adopted during the pandemic will continue. At BPIA, for example, even as there will be a return to in-person events, the virtual meeting won’t go away completely.

“Last year, we started holding free member-only webinars,” Jones says. “Those webinars have been so well received by our members that we plan to continue them even after we go back to in-person meetings. This year we started having virtual Capitol Hill Days. In the past, we would ask our members to come to Washington, DC several times a year for these meetings. We have seen greater participation in these virtual ‘fly-ins’ because folks don’t need to fly in to take part, so we may continue these also. We even made our annual meeting, which is our biggest event of the year, into a completely virtual program. It was a great success with the most participants we ever had. Nevertheless, we are excited to announce that the BPIA 2022 Annual Meeting will be in-person in Monterey, CA, on May 17-18, 2022. Registration is already open.”

As businesses begin to return to and adjust to the new normal they’ll have a chance to assess how deeply they were affected by the pandemic. In one sense, it might actually help the industry.

“Politically there is a wish for greening of agriculture, and this has been heightened following the pandemic,” Lewis says.

How that plays out remains to be seen, but it’s clear the companies and organizations comprising the biological product industry are eager to put the past 18-plus months behind them.

“Our members are very optimistic about the rest of 2021 and are eagerly looking forward to 2022,” Jones says. “As the world continues to get back to normal, the expectation is that our industry will resume its rapid growth. While 2020 did slow almost everything in the world down, our members expect that it was at worst a temporary lull for the biological product industry. There is a strong belief that 2022 will be another strong year for our industry.”

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