AgriBusiness Global, spoke with David Allen, Director Of Business Development – Global Surfactants at Stepan Company, whose mission is to “provide innovative chemical solutions for a cleaner, healthier, more energy efficient world.” Allen discusses ag partnerships and the growing role of biological solutions.
ABG: En 2021, lanzó Project Shield con un par de laboratorios académicos franceses. ¿Puede explicar el progreso realizado con esa asociación en la lucha contra la esclerotinia de colza?
david allen: Yeah, rapeseed sclerotinia is a disease of economic importance in Europe. We’re in the second year of a three-year project, and we’re making some good progress. In May of 2023, they’re doing some sprays for this project, and we’re excited to review the data in the coming months. It was a unique opportunity because of the Farm to Fork legislation in the European Union (EU).
Stepan has a focus on improving biological products. One of the products that we’re using in the experiments is a fermentation product that we licensed from another company in 2019. It was a really good opportunity, and we are really appreciative of the university partners that we are working with and the French government, which provides the funding.
ABG: Trabajar con laboratorios académicos es una excelente manera de realizar investigaciones de manera rentable. ¿Cuáles han sido algunos de los otros beneficios?
AD: For this particular project, Stepan provides the formulation, knowledge, and expertise. The universities provide the testing facilities and manpower to do the testing and analysis of trials. We’re doing that all in France and using the local university ecosystem to help with the complexities of doing trials on row crops, especially for rapeseed sclerotinia.
It’s a win-win. We’re getting a lot of funding from the EU to do this, but we’re also deploying our folks in a specific area that we find really interesting and that we have knowledge and expertise. There is more interest in biological formulations and trying to improve efficacy, because biological products often don’t have the robustness of, let’s say, a synthetic product.
We were able to have this opportunity because we have operations in Europe, especially in France. The way the funding works is geared to companies that have a footprint there. We probably wouldn’t have tackled it on our own because the barriers are just too high. For a company like us, it would be very difficult to do this on our own.
ABG: ¿Ha visto un mayor interés en los productores que personalizan soluciones de combinación de biológicos con sintéticos en los últimos 10 años?
AD: There’s a strong interest in biologicals either on their own or combined with other products. The other products could be synthetic or semi-synthetic or extracts and essential oils. There is a lot of interest in making biological formulations stable or fit for purpose in the industry. Farming practices have been designed for using synthetic products. The biological products tend to be not as robust in the jug. Most of the work is figuring out those nuances and making formulations that fit into the agronomic practices of today.
La otra área de interés está en los productos que tienen mejor eficacia o compatibilidad de mezcla con otros productos en el tanque. Las empresas también están buscando la eficacia en las afirmaciones de las etiquetas y las palabras clave en una etiqueta para la seguridad. Hemos visto muchas empresas preguntando cómo mejorar las palabras de advertencia o una forma de dar una palabra de advertencia más baja en una etiqueta. Hay algunos ingredientes activos que pueden mover la aguja en la palabra de seguridad o en el lenguaje de la etiqueta. Trabajamos mucho para que el uso del producto sea más seguro para el aplicador.
ABG: ¿Qué tipo de tendencias está viendo para los productores de los Estados Unidos que usan biopesticidas en cultivos en hileras?
AD: There is a little bit in some parts of the country. We’ve seen some adoption of biological products in row crops, in certain applications. With crop prices being as high as they are, there’s a little bit more room for people to try some of that. Then as certain active ingredients get regulated out, that’s another opportunity to incorporate some of those biological products into those systems. I’d say you’ve probably seen more adoption of biological insecticides than biological fungicides. Another driver is resistance, along with the regulatory landscape, makes it a little bit easier to adopt biologicals for the larger crops. But it’s not common practice yet.
ABG: En este momento se habla mucho sobre cómo los ingredientes activos sintéticos están sobreabastecidos en el mercado en este momento. ¿Crees que la protección sintética de cultivos más barata hará que los productos biológicos superen el precio?
AD: Overstock in the agricultural economy tends to repeat itself. We tend to not learn from the lessons of the past. There are really good reasons for having some of the overstock because of what we came out of in COVID and the supply chain problems that we’ve had as an industry.
Las realidades económicas de los cultivos en crecimiento se inclinarán hacia cómo se ven los puntos de precio y cómo se alinean entre sí es importante para un productor. Pero diré, ya sabes, si la resistencia es un factor determinante o en otras aplicaciones donde la seguridad o la toxicidad son realmente importantes, entonces usar esos productos biológicos será la única opción.
It’s the same thing with any other product, you have to show return on investment to the grower. If the biological product is doing that, they’re going to use that.
ABG: ¿Cuáles son algunos de los desafíos de recursos para productos biológicos?
AD: Hay un par de desafíos para obtener recursos biológicos. Uno está tratando de encontrar personas que entiendan microbiología y formulaciones, emparejar esas dos disciplinas en una sola persona es bastante raro. La mayoría de las veces, tenemos que tener un enfoque de equipo con expertos en microbiología y tecnología de formulación sentados uno al lado del otro.
A second challenge is all the testing, which is a little bit different than synthetic testing in terms of viability of the organisms. Are they alive or not? In some cases, it’s getting the active ingredient itself. Getting off-patent synthetic active ingredients is pretty straightforward. Biological products, depending on what they are, could be a little bit complicated.
Es posible que tenga que cultivar ingredientes activos biológicos usted mismo, lo que significa que debe tener fermentación, además de microbiología, además de formulación.
ABG: Suena como una oportunidad de negocio en eso. ¿Qué opinas?
AD: There are a few biologicals that are ubiquitous, right? But there are also many different products in the marketplace today. There’s more opportunity in identifying new strains or new types of different bacteria or fungus. People who are able to find microbes in the environment, understand what crop disease they would eradicate, and then getting it into the hands of folks that can commercialize it.
ABG: En la línea de la sostenibilidad, ¿puede hablar sobre la misión de su empresa de ayudar con el medio ambiente en general?
AD: Stepan’s sustainability goals are woven into its corporate values. Our corporate values, like continuous improvement and doing the right thing, are aligned with our pillars of people, planet, products, and practices. What we’re trying to do is innovate and bring products to market that are going to improve the planet or how people interact with those products end to end. This challenges our employees to think differently and in an agile manner.