New Ceradis VP Discusses Transition to Biologicals and the Company’s First U.S. Registered Product

Jan Stechmann recently joined Ceradis B.V. as VP of Sales and Marketing. AgriBusiness Global spoke with Stechmann about his transition from traditional crop protection to the biological world and what the company has planned for growers.

Q. You have been in your new role for nearly 5 months, how has the transition been? What was attractive about the opportunity at Ceradis B.V. And how are you holding up with the COVID-19 situation?

Advertisement

Jan Stechmann, VP of Sales and Marketing, Ceradis B.V.

A. The transition has been good and relatively easy. I entered into a young, highly dynamic and communicative team, so I felt welcome and integrated quickly. It’s been intriguing to be part of a company that really wants to improve the food chain and the chemical footprint of agriculture.

As for Covid-19, luckily, I knew I was going to start with a home office and when moving to North Carolina, we took that into account and planned accordingly.

Top Articles
ADAMA Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Results

Q. Your professional experience has been more in the “conventional” or in synthetic chemistry, and some cannot make the transition easily to the biological market. Can you tell us how you have managed this? Has it met or exceeded your expectation?

A. I worked in the conventional chemistry market for over 20 years, with that experience being highly valuable with the career move into biological market. I still approach a new product based on its efficacy and handling compared to market standards versus just trying to ride the “biological” wave. The great thing about Ceradis is that they have products that can stand the efficacy and easy handling tests, just as our first product CeraMax, is showing here in the U.S.

Q. CeraMax was the first product registered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in October 2019 from Ceradis. Can you tell us about new bio fungicide seed treatment for soybeans? How is the product is being accepted in the U.S. soybeans market? Does Ceradis have plans to register it in other markets?

A. With CeraMax we launched a next generation biological, which is what the market should come to expect: Products in line with the efficacy of current market standards, like CeraMax in SDS control, easy to handle, with great compatibility and shelf life, as well as reducing the chemical load. With that, there is a growing interest and acceptance of CeraMax in the U.S. market, with additional registration forthcoming in Canada and Latin America.

Q. The active ingredient is CeraMax is Natamycin, which was discovered about 53 years ago and primarily used for food preservation. How did the R&D team equate for use in seed treatments?

A soybean field treated with CeraMax, a biochemical fungicide using the active ingredient Natamycin, to protect against a broad spectrum of diseases.

A. The active ingredient Natamycin is indeed known for its long history of success, given its use in food preservation, with a remarkable track record in human safety and no resistance building. However, Natamycin is expensive and highly sensitive to UV and pH. Our founder Wim van der Krieken, came from the University of Wageningen (the Netherlands) where the product concept was developed to overcome the challenges of cost, UV-stability and pH sensitivity. Thereby, this patent-protected product was brought to the market, which was for starters in seed treatment. With three years of field testing here in the U.S. showing an efficacy that matches the competition in SDS control, he certainly brought a great product to the U.S. farmer. We are now building on this with the introduction of CeraFruta, which obtained EPA registration in April 2020, enable full-spectrum post-harvest biocontrol.

Q. The company has a plant health line of products with its FytoFert and MusaCare lines, what has you excited about the plant nutrition market and where will Ceradis look for market penetration?

A. Some of our products are registered as a fertilizer, which act also to strengthen the plant against diseases, enabling a lower chemical load. With MusaCare CP we have a recognized tool in banana plantations and our FytoFert line is used in several countries in Central and South America, Europe, and Asia. In all these cases, our products allow a reduction in contacticide fungicides. Our new product development is geared towards organic or bio-pesticides, for instance our CeraQuint bio fungicide as well as CeraSulfur, a biologically derived microbial Sulphur SC formulation with excellent properties compared to conventional sulfur.

Hide picture