BioEx 2018 - a grand gathering linking Chinese and foreign biopesticide and biostimulant enterprises

 

From different perspectives, the officials, experts and scholars from government administrative departments, industry association, research institution and leading biopesticide and biostimulant enterprises made analysis of the development trend and future prospects of the industries, and share their experience of product development, production, market promotion, registration and demand of technology transfer, etc.

 

 

 

Ms Zhang Nan of ICAMA gave an introduction to the pesticide registration status, the policy changes and procedure under the requirement of the new Regulation on Pesticide Administration. Ms Zhang Nan analyzed the opportunities of biopesticides in China with proper data and information, meanwhile pointing out existing problems, such as the varied quality of biopesticide, the inadequacy of biopesticide standard and evaluation criteria, which need to be improved.

 

According to ICAMA, up until end of 2017, the number of registration of pesticides reached 38,248, of which biochemical pesticides, microbial pesticides and botanical pesticides reached 1,266 accounting for 3.3% involving 97 kinds of active ingredients (different strains included). The number of registration of agro-antibiotics (not regarded as biopesticides in overseas market) reached 2,415 accounting for 6.3% involving 13 kinds of active ingredients. The total of the two accounts for 9.9% of the total pesticide registrations. In the US, the number of registered biopesticide formulations is at present about 1,420 accounting for 8.3% of the total pesticide formulation registrations. There are 248 kinds of registered biopesticide active ingredients, accounting for 20% of the total active ingredient registrations. The above shows a big gap between Chinese market and mature American market, in regard to both the proportion of biopesticide active ingredients and their number of registrations.

Type		Number of varieties		Number of products
		2016	2017	2016	2017
Microbial pesticides	Bactera	14	15	56	67
	Fungi	13	17	347	367
	Virus	11	11	63	70
	Protozoa	1	1	1	1
Biochemical pesticides	Pheromone	3	4	74	81
	Plant growth regulator	14	16	392	383
	Plant inducer	6	7	115	135
Botanical pesticides		25	26	240	262
Total		87	97	1291	1366

 

Chinese Biostimulant Status: highly problematic, but will become the largest market in the world.
 

Keynote speakers from the biostimulant associations of North America, Europe, South America and China described the global biostimulant deployment status and development trend.
 

The global biostimulant market value of 2017 was $2 billion, of which the Asian market value was $400 million, Chinese market value was 240 million and its retail value was about $400 million. The annual industry growth rate is 12%-13%. In the next three to five years, Chinese biostimulant market value is expected to reach $400-500 million to become the largest biostimulant application market in the future. According to incomplete statistics, over 1/3 of the global biostimulant enterprises have entered or are making preparations for entry into Chinese market. 
 

However, some problems exist in Chinese biostimulant industry, which mainly are: larger number of biostimulant enterprises, smaller business scale, shortage of differentiated products, lower profitability, weak fundamental research capacity, lack of technical innovation in production chains,standardization process lagging behind, and the classified administration failing to reflect special function and actual effect which results in registration difficulties. Additionally, product-oriented service, and the field research incorporating product application needs to be improved. Some of the ingredients, action mode and metabolite require to be analyzed clearly and thoroughly. To this end, overseas enterprises ought to make improvement to the field trial and demonstration in the course of localization as well as to strengthen technical guidance.

 

BioEx enables discovery of potential partners of cooperation which builds up links between Chinese and foreign companies
 

During the 2-day gathering, a number of outstanding overseas biopesticide and biostimulant enterprises went up the arena to present their superb technology and product. Companies that gave presentations include the 100-year old company Danish Chr.hansen, which is the world’s largest probiotic company, the world’s first orange peel oil development company ORO AGRI from the US with lots of orange peel oil patents, Polish Biopharmacotech, Israeli STK, Spanish Agritecno and Italian Diachem that has not yet entered Chinese market. Chinese market is big, but is developed rather late compared to the west. Superior products from overseas enterprises appear very appealing to Chinese users. The Chinese attendees including overseas product distributors in China were actively approaching these overseas enterprises to build up communication in order to obtain more updated product information. 
 

“The biopesticide and biostimulant exchange congress, organized by AgroPages, has become a good link between China and the world for exchange of information on academics, research, production and application, which will bridge introduction of advanced technology and products abroad and Chinese biopesticides and biostimulants  going global”, as commentated by many attendees in this exchange congress. 
 

 

(Social networking during tea break and pictures of some booths)
 

Comments from attendees:
 

“Thanks to AgroPages for organizing the congress, thank you for your hard work. The event opened up our vision. We could see the latest science and technology. The gathering also facilitated collaborations, AgroPages did a good job.” - Zheng Hongqi, Managing Director, Beijing HFDS Bio-tech Co., Ltd.
 

Zheng Hongqi, Managing Director, Beijing HFDS Bio-tech Co., Ltd.

 

“I’m already looking forward to this event of next year. It went very well!” - Martin Driscoll, Commercial Manager, Biotechnica Services Ltd.

Martin Driscoll, Commercial Manager, Biotechnica Services Ltd.

 

“It was excellent and this was one of the best planned conferences I ever attended. Great job!” - Carol Pullen, Managing Director, ORO AGRI Europe.
 

 Carol Pullen, Managing Director, ORO AGRI Europe.
 

“I love every minute of the event. Look forward to helping you on all biostimulant matters, and yes, I will be glad to come again next year.” - David Crow, President, DCLRS, Inc.

 

David Crow, President, DCLRS, Inc.

 

 

 

Paul Zheng at email: paul@agropages.com

Joyce Wang at email: joyce@agropages.com