Xingbai Group - the leading player in the industry of avermectin and emamectin benzoate

• Xingbai Group is an old-line manufacturer of avermectin and emamectin benzoate. Please explain the current status of your major products on the market and your future plan for them.

  
  

Hebei Xingbai Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. (Xingbai AgTech for short) is located in Nanbaishe Bio-industrial Park, Zhaoxian County, Hebei Province. Backed by Hebei Xingbai Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. (Xingbai Group for short), Xingbai AgTech produces and sells technical materials (TCs), formulations and intermediates of pesticides, medicines and veterinary drugs, with a market share of around 35% in terms of abamectin and emamectin benzoate TCs. Avermectin (produced by fermentation process) and its derivatives, emamectin benzoate, ivermectin and Abamectin B2, are the fundamental products of Xingbai AgTech. Xingbai Group owns a proprietary production process and extraction technology of abamectin and emamectin benzoate, six patents and the naming right of Abamectin B2. Xingbai Group is the winner of many provincial science and technology awards. In 2016, the project titled Efficient Microbial Synthesis and Biological Production of Avermectin of Xingbai Group won the second prize of National Science and Technology Progress Award. Leaders from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control, and Agriculture Department of Hebei Province gave positive comments on the avermectin industry and circular agriculture of Xingbai AgTech, and visited the company for many times, which further inspires the development of the company.

On September 18, 2020, the project titled Safety Assessment of Harmless Treatment and Fertilizer Conversion of Avermectin Residues of Xingbai AgTech passed the national acceptance. It is concluded that the “hot hydrolysis + aerobic compost-fermentation” process is feasible for the compound process of harmless treatment and fertilizer conversion of avermectin residues, and the organic fertilizer produced by this process with avermectin residues has high safety in use. This project lays a foundation for efficient recycling and long-term development of avermectin industry related resources.

This year, Xingbai AgTech ranked 25th among the Top100 Chinese Pesticide Companies by Sales with a revenue of RMB1.963 billion. Xingbai Group owns the State Key Laboratory of Avermectin. In April 2019, Xingbai Group successfully hosted the “Second Conference of Avermectin Alliance for Industry-Enterprise Collaborative Innovations” jointly with the State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology. Xingbai Group is capable of producing 1700 tons of avermectin (converted to 100% concentration). In response to the increasing global demand for emamectin benzoate, we are planning to expand the production capacity of emamectin benzoate by 10%-15% every year to meet the market demand.

In 2021, Hebei Xingbai Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. produced and sold 1,700 tons of avermectin and 530 tons of emamectin benzoate, with a market share of about 30%. The 1,600t/a emamectin benzoate project was completed and put into production, and other projects involving flonicamid, flucarbazone-sodium, bifenazate and oxine-copper have been approved and will be constructed as planned.

In 2022, the company plans to build a 1,500t/a spinosad TC project, green pesticide science and technology research institute, intelligent herbicide formulation production line, intelligent warehouse, and associated energy projects and environmental protection projects. The company aims to to upgrade energy management and to save energy and increase efficiency through the application of new technologies. Besides, the company will consolidate its overseas market presence by increasing investment in global product registration.

The office building of Xingbai Group

• At present, there are many players in the industry of avermectin and emamectin benzoate. What’s your opinion on the current industrial structure and what’s the competitive advantages of Xingbai Group? Please talk about it from the aspects of quality, cost advantage, brand awareness and business presence.
  

Avermectin and its derivative emamectin benzoate belong to fermentation biological pesticides, with broad control spectrum, high efficacy, good environmental friendliness and important position in the global plant protection system. Considering the increasing requirement for green development in the world and the rising demand every year, it is no doubt the production capacity expansion conforms to the law of market development. The global production capacity of these products can basically meet the demand, and there is no surplus production capacity. Besides, such capacity is mainly attributable to China, and avermectin is also a product where China has a bigger voice. In 2020, avermectin strains and their production technology were included by the government in the Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited and Restricted from Export. After years of intensive competition, some domestic companies became more stronger on strength of their respective avermectin strains and technologies. These companies have their individual strengths and take different market shares. There is an industrial organization, i.e., Avermectin Product Collaboration Group under CCPIA, which serves to ensure timely communication and negotiation as well as equal competition and cooperation, to guarantee a stable and healthy development of the industry.

Xingbai Group is the only firm in China that produces avermectin with corn as raw material from the very beginning. The company possesses a complete upstream and downstream industrial chain and all necessary technologies, and has cost advantages over the whole industrial chain. After years of high-throughput strain screening, the fermentation titer of Xingbai Group has captured a leading position in the industry. The company focuses on avermectin R&D and holds many technical patents. The State Key Laboratory of Avermectin owned by the company brings together experts and scholars from all over the world for exchange, research, and innovation, and has realized new achievements from the technical technology to formulation one after another. At present, the company holds a variety of formulation technologies and products for controlling mites, insects and nematodes on major food crops and some industrial crops in the world, which help efficiently solve the problems of crop protection in an environmentally friendly way. The company has reached high standards in safety and environmental protection, with stable production, products and quality. The company also provides prompt technical services to solve the problems facing downstream customers in production and use.

The R&D and production facility of Xingbai

At present, Xingbai brands are registered in more than 180 countries around the world. Our 36 new compounds have passed the examination process for registration and production qualification by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and been granted with the production licenses. These efforts will end up solidifying our product portfolio, further supporting and expanding the presence of avermectin and emamectin benzoate, and serving agriculture in a wider market. We will continue the strategy of international registration and simultaneous development of domestic and international markets to secure a stable growth.

Xingbai cooperate with overseas customers

• What efforts and achievements has Xingbai Group made in developing green pesticides and solving farmers' specific problems?

In terms of the production process of technicals, we have always maintained a professional, dedicated and attentive attitude. After years of development and continuous innovation, we have achieved the purified content of avermectin over 98%, and emamectin benzoate over 95%. In 2016, “Efficient Microbial Synthesis and Biological Production of Avermectin” of Xingbai Group won the second prize of National Science and Technology Progress Award. In terms of formulation development, Xingbai Group focuses on research, development, efficacy, formula, etc., and has made differentiated formulas for different crops and pests to meet different needs of users, which has been highly recognized. We keep close cooperation with the CAAS Institute of Plant Protection, Professional Committee of Plant Pathogenic Nematodes, National Agricultural Technology Extension and Service Center, foreign customers and agricultural peers from Southeast Asia, South America and Africa, to test the product formula, and have obtained abundant data. We actively promote green technology, research and develop environmentally friendly adjuvant, and so on. We successfully discovered and extracted the B2 component of avermectin, with which we have the naming right.

Nematode control is a generally difficult problem in the world, and the global annual loss is as high as US$150 million. As a new avermectin product, Avermectin B2 is an excellent insecticide. Avermectin B2 is different from B1 in insecticidal spectrum. It has high activity against root-knot nematodes, root-rot nematodes, cyst nematodes, stem nematodes, pine wood nematodes, etc, and has a good control effect on animal surface pests. On July 29, 2013, the B2 component of avermectin was officially named by the National Technical Committee 133 on Pesticides of Standardization Administration of China as “阿维菌素B2” in Chinese (Avermectin B2 in English). Through extensive lab activity determination experiments and field trials, scientific data so obtained show that Avermectin B2 has high activity on infectious nematodes such as root-knot nematodes, root-rot nematodes, cyst nematodes and stem nematodes of crops such as cucumber, tomato, watermelon, banana, ginger, citrus, sweet potato, Panax notoginseng, Panax quinquefolius, soybean, rice, wheat, etc., with low toxicity, higher safety in use and environmentally friendliness, and good social and economic value.

• It is reported that Xingbai Group has invested a 1,600t/a emamectin benzoate plant, and has also planned to build another plant. Could you introduce your plan for your products?
  

Xingbai Group is currently located in Nanbaishe Bio-industrial Park, a part of a provincial economic and technological development zone at Zhao County, Shijiazhuang. The products of Xingbai Group mainly include pesticides and veterinary drugs such as avermectin and its derivatives, spinosad and ivermectin, as well as biological intermediates such as starch and vegetable oil. For further development, Xingbai Group is launching another facility in the Lingang Economic and Technological Development Zone, a national chemical industry park in Cangzhou, to boost the production capacity of 36 technical products such as flonicamid, dinotefuran, cyazofamid, florasulam and bifenazate, so as to seize more international market share. This facility serves to broaden and expand our product line, and gain the economy of scale. The production facilities located in the two parks can complement each other, and the total output value is expected to reach RMB 10 billion in the coming 3-5 years.

The production capacity of emamectin benzoate needs to be determined through industry consultation according to market and industry demand, and scientific planning should be carried out to avoid waste and ensure the healthy and stable development of upstream and downstream industries.

•  Could you tell us what plans and efforts Xingbai Group has made and what goals you expect to achieve from the perspective of sustainable development, such as carbon footprint, water consumption and waste reduction goals?

  
  

Since its establishment in 1987, Xingbai Group has been focusing on health industry for 33 years. While focusing on avermectin and emamectin benzoate, we always attach great importance to market demand and actively develop other green, environmentally-friendly and efficient pesticides. 

Xingbai Group has always been committed to a path of high-quality development in an innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared way. Xingbai is the only company in the avermectin segment that has achieved the agricultural industry cycle where corn is used as raw material to produce corn starch, and finally avermectin, which is then used in agriculture. The company is recognized as a national key leading enterprise in agricultural industrialization and has made outstanding contributions to saving energy, reducing consumption and turning waste into wealth. It is still striving to perform better through scientific research and innovation. Almost all the wastes generated in the production process are transformed into products, and the upstream and downstream wastes and by-products are used as raw material. For example, corn husk and corn meal generated from corn to starch are used to produce high-quality feed; the fermentation residue generated from starch to avermectin is decontaminated and used to produce fertilizer through the compound process of “thermal hydrolysis + aerobic composting” in an efficient way. At present, the company is vigorously carrying out energy-saving and consumption-reduction projects to reduce energy consumption and control carbon emissions. It also invests in technological research and development to improving the fermentation efficiency, to increase the output without changing energy consumption and adding equipment, thus saving energy and reducing consumption for the sake of green development.

Contact

Email: foreigntrade07@xingbai.net
Tel: +86 13231103681
Web: www.xingbai.cn