Biologicals: Export Drivers, Climate Challenges, and Long-Term Growth Potential
27 August 2026 Africa’s biologicals market is gaining steady attention as growers and input providers seek to improve soil health, enhance nutrient use efficiency, and build resilience in increasingly variable production environments. Yet, while interest is rising, adoption remains highly fragmented across countries, crops, and farming systems.
Early-Stage Development Driven by Sustainability
Africa’s biologicals sector is showing signs of growth, driven by export requirements, sustainability goals, and the need for new pest and disease management tools. However, adoption remains uneven across the continent, reflecting differences in regulation, market access, grower awareness, and crop production systems. For the growth that is happening, Andre Fox, Business Development Manager of Andermatt International; Hamish Ker, CEO of Andermatt Kenya; and Michelle Lesur, CEO of Andermatt Madumbi, a Southern African subsidiary of Andermatt, attribute a combination of rising input costs, soil degradation concerns, and pressure to improve productivity as key drivers accelerating interest in alternative crop input solutions.
Global biologicals players frame these trends within a broader sustainability transition. Plant health company Bioiberica, for example, positions biostimulants as part of a shift toward improving crop performance through enhanced nutrient efficiency and plant resilience under sustainability-driven agriculture systems.
Many of the same pressures shaping adoption in Sub-Saharan Africa are also accelerating biologicals interest across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), particularly as growers face mounting water scarcity, soil degradation, and tightening export market requirements.
“The biological market in South Africa is experiencing excellent growth as the market has realized that these solutions are not niche or trendy but are actually important tools to add to farming practices to support yield and quality as well as managing stress,” says Andre Rossouw, Director of Sub-Saharan Africa for Rovensa Next.
Rossouw added that export-oriented horticultural production remains one of the strongest demand drivers, particularly for growers supplying European Union and UK markets with strict residue requirements.
In MENA markets, biological adoption is increasingly tied to both sustainability initiatives and resource management pressures, according to Hesham Salah, MENA Technical Coordinator at Rovensa Next.
“One of the most important factors is the region’s acute water scarcity and ongoing soil degradation, which is pushing growers to adopt solutions that improve water use efficiency and restore soil health,” Salah says.
Growth Crops and Regions
According to Rovensa Next MENA Development and Marketing Coordinator Mohamed Ait El Kaid, biologicals adoption is gaining the most traction in high-value, export-oriented crops, including grapes, berries, olives, dates, cherry tomatoes, and beans, particularly in Morocco, Egypt, and Tunisia. He notes that adoption is also increasing in Gulf countries, where investments in sustainability and controlled-environment agriculture are driving demand.
Andermatt Kenya’s Ker says interest in biologicals in East Africa/Kenya is being driven heavily by export-oriented fresh produce production, particularly flowers and vegetables destined for European markets, to meet increasing regulations on MRLs and limited approved actives.
He adds that biological seed treatments in cereals are also gaining traction because they represent “the most cost-effective method to get the biggest bang for biologicals.”
Andermatt International’s Fox says export market residue requirements, sustainability goals, and resistance management are the primary factors accelerating adoption across African markets.
“A key driver is the export markets that want residue free,” Fox says. “Second would be the benefit of being more sustainable if you’re not controlled by oil-based inputs. Third would be resistance management.”
Additional market data from the South African Bioproducts Organization (SABO) highlights the pace of development already underway in South Africa. According to a recent SABO analysis shared by Lesur, biologicals now account for roughly 8% of South Africa’s crop protection market, representing approximately ZAR 1.4 billion in value.
Lesur says adoption is being driven primarily by export residue requirements, environmental compliance pressures, and growing consumer demand for lower-residue food products.
“Secondary drivers include resistance management needs and the gradual loss of conventional chemistry,” Lesur says.
Adoption Remains Fragmented
Adoption patterns across Africa are highly variable. Higher uptake of biologicals is generally observed in export-oriented horticultural production, fruit and vegetable systems, and commercial farming operations where return on investment is more immediately measurable. In these systems, biologicals are often used to complement conventional fertilizer programs, particularly in efforts to improve root development, nutrient uptake, and stress tolerance.
Ker notes that biologicals are also gaining interest in situations where conventional chemistry is losing effectiveness due to pest resistance.
“Where chemistry is failing due to resistance, we are seeing farmers embrace biologicals as a way to break resistance and improve efficacy of chemistry,” Ker says.
By contrast, smallholder farming systems — still dominant across much of Sub-Saharan Africa — face more structural barriers to adoption. These include limited access to technical agronomic support, inconsistent product availability, and lower awareness of how biologicals perform under local field conditions. In many cases, biological input use remains opportunistic rather than fully integrated into nutrient management programs.
Fox says that broader adoption also requires greater confidence in locally driven agricultural development strategies.
“Africa needs to believe in itself and stop taking its references from first-world countries,” Fox says. “Food security for Africa needs to be done by Africans.”
Ker adds that grower skepticism around efficacy and cost remains a major hurdle.
“Perception of high cost versus efficacy ‘bugs in a jug, does it really work?’ remains a challenge,” he says, noting that on-farm demonstrations and large-scale trial programs have proven effective in overcoming hesitation. “Seeing is believing.”
He adds that storage and application logistics can also create practical challenges for small-scale growers.
According to Rovensa Next’s Salah, Ait El Kaid, and Stephan Marais, Sub-Saharan Africa Technical and Marketing Manager, knowledge gaps among growers, limited technical support, and concerns about product consistency continue to slow biologicals adoption across Africa.
“In Sub-Saharan Africa, regulatory and registration barriers remain the single biggest constraint as regulatory systems are still built for chemistry, not biologicals,” says Marais.
He adds that limited technical knowledge surrounding biological application practices can create inconsistent field performance, ultimately damaging grower confidence.
In MENA markets, Salah and Ait El Kaid say price sensitivity, skepticism around efficacy, and uneven product quality continue to slow adoption despite growing interest.
“The most important issue is low grower awareness and technical knowledge, which makes it difficult to apply these products effectively,” Salah says.
Regulatory Systems Continue to Evolve
Regulatory frameworks also remain fragmented across the region, with biological products often classified under broader fertilizer or pesticide regulations depending on the country. This lack of harmonization can slow product registration and limit cross-border commercialization for manufacturers operating across multiple African markets.
Lesur describes the broader Southern African regulatory landscape as “highly fragmented and country specific,” noting that many countries still regulate biologicals under legacy pesticide frameworks originally designed for conventional chemistry.
“There is growing momentum toward regional harmonization, especially through the Southern African Development Community,” Lesur says, though inconsistent implementation and lengthy approval timelines continue to slow commercialization efforts across multiple markets.
At the same time, Lesur says regulatory systems across Southern Africa are gradually evolving to better accommodate biological products, although capacity constraints, fragmented requirements, and lengthy approval timelines continue to create challenges.
Overall though, Fox says Africa’s systems are fast compared to other parts of the world.
Ker describes Kenya’s regulatory system as comparatively advanced, pointing to the country’s Pest Control Products Board (PCPB) as a key driver supporting biologicals adoption.
“Kenya is driving biologicals as a means to sustain access to market,” Ker says, noting that the PCPB is receiving support from the International Biocontrol Manufacturers Association and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Kenya.
According to Ker, Tanzania maintains a similar regulatory approach, while Ethiopia relies more heavily on product origin approvals and direct import permitting for biological products.
Salah similarly describes Africa’s biologicals regulatory environment as highly fragmented, with several countries continuing to regulate biological products under frameworks originally designed for conventional chemical pesticides.
“The regulatory landscape for biologicals in the region remains below industry expectations and varies significantly from one country to another,” says Ait El Kaid.
According to Ait El Kaid, Tunisia has emerged as one of the more flexible regulatory environments in North Africa, particularly for export-oriented crops such as olives and dates, while Morocco has shown growing institutional support for biologicals despite ongoing registration bottlenecks.
By contrast, he says Algeria continues to regulate biologicals similarly to conventional pesticides, applying many of the same approval requirements and processes.
Marais also points to recent policy developments in South Africa aimed at accelerating agricultural input approvals and establishing clearer regulatory pathways for low-risk agricultural technologies.
Long-Term Outlook Points to Accelerating Growth
Despite these challenges, longer-term outlooks remain positive. Regional agricultural transformation agendas and soil health initiatives are increasingly aligned with the principles underpinning biological input use. At the same time, global manufacturers continue to invest in product development and localized testing aimed at improving field performance under diverse African growing conditions.
Fox says one potential challenge over the next several years could be supply availability as adoption accelerates.
“Northeast Africa is going to develop very quickly in the biological space,” Fox says, citing export opportunities and improving agricultural infrastructure.
Fox identified perennial crops, intensive vegetable production, and floriculture as among the strongest growth opportunities for biologicals.
Ker similarly expects export-oriented production systems to drive continued adoption, particularly as European market standards tighten.
“Crops destined for Europe will need to embrace biological solutions,” Ker says, noting that some major export farms are already targeting chemical-free production systems by 2030.
He also sees significant opportunity for biological seed treatments and targeted biological interventions designed to reduce yield losses and improve overall crop performance.
Looking ahead, Ker believes grower confidence will be the tipping point for broader market acceleration.
“Growers need to see first before they let go of their comfort zone and make the bold step into regenerative,” Ker says. “Once the flock moves, it will move fast, and adoption will accelerate.”
Despite ongoing bottlenecks, industry participants expect strong growth over the next several years. According to Lesur, most projections for Southern Africa’s biologicals market point to annual growth rates ranging from 10% to more than 20%, potentially expanding the market from roughly ZAR 1.4 billion today to between ZAR 2.25 billion and ZAR 3.5 billion within the next three to five years.
Rossouw expects biologicals adoption across Africa to continue accelerating over the next three to five years.
“I believe the South African market will show steady, structurally driven growth, outperforming conventional crop protection growth rates,” Rossouw says. “But biologicals will not rapidly replace chemicals. Instead, they will be used alongside conventional chemistry to support export compliance, climate stress, and input-cost volatility.”
The company identified biostimulants as one of the fastest-growing segments, particularly in climate-stressed production environments.
Salah says Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emrites represent some of the strongest long-term growth opportunities due to expanding export agriculture, sustainability initiatives, and investment in high-tech production systems.
According to Ait El Kaid, increasing regulatory pressure on conventional chemistry and growing farmer confidence in biological products could accelerate adoption in the years ahead.
Lesur says export-oriented citrus and grape production will likely remain leading adoption segments, while bioinsecticides, biofungicides, and bioherbicides represent some of the largest long-term growth opportunities.
“Unlocking adoption will depend on continued investment in data, education, and regulatory efficiency,” she says.
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