Heart, Passion, Energy
19 December 2008 Since its 1980 beginning as Farmer S.n.c., Italy’s Valagro S.p.A has become a leader in plant nutrition.
Stimulating Investment
Reinvesting its profits in research and improvement of production units has helped Valagro’s expansion. The company’s R&D investments have recently been focused on the “biostimulant” segment, says Marketing Manager Stefano Amadei. “Since we acquired Algea some years ago we are exploiting this ‘never-ending’ mine of biological active components derived from seaweed to build more efficient and eco-friendly products that enable plants to solve specific problems,” he says.
The current economic environment has delayed some of Valagro’s new initiatives, but not for long. “The current stock market situation obliged us to postpone our intention to be listed on the Italian Stock Exchange,” explains Amadei. “In the meantime, the explicit goal is to increase our presence and proximity to global markets.”
Reaching Out
Domestic sales are around 25%. Amadei foresees a major increase in 2009 of the company’s international presence: “Next year, we will break the Italian frontiers by launching our ‘top’ garden product in two important European markets. In the farm segment, we will strengthen positions in key markets like Brazil and the US.”
Valagro’s biggest markets are Italy and Spain, where it has important market shares and most of its products are well-established. Every year, the company sets the basis to enter new markets, such as the acquisition of SAMABIOL in France in early 2008, which Amadei says helped Valagro to rapidly gain positions in an important European market. “We also constantly monitor the ‘emerging’ markets like China,” he says; there, the company put a local person in charge of developing the high-potential market. “At the moment the growth for specialty fertilizers in these countries is not so impressive but it may literally blast in the medium-long term,” says Amadei.
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