AgroPages-Sinagro partners with AgBiTech to expand Brazilian bioinsecticide market-Agricultural news

Sinagro partners with AgBiTech to expand Brazilian bioinsecticide market

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Brazilian company Sinagro Group joined the Australian AgBiTech, a specialist in biological control of caterpillars, to bring to Brazil an innovative portfolio for farmers. Through the partnership, the two companies seek to unite sustainability and technology, with a view to the great transformations that the national pest control market must undergo in the next harvest.

Currently, the bioinsecticides market for caterpillars control accounts for less than 1% of the US$900 million annual insecticide segment. Industry projections indicate, however, that in a period of up to 10 years, the share of biological insecticides will reach 20% of the revenue, close to US$ 150 million.

"New technological tools, with a sustainable profile and high efficiency, should gain prominence in the national pest control market in the coming years", says the president of the Sinagro Group, Renato Guimarães. "The partnership with AgBiTech guarantees Sinagro the distribution of a single, efficient and safe portfolio, fully aligned with integrated pest management."

The Sinagro- AgBiTech partnership aims to provide the farmer with these important technologies, offering a portfolio of solutions of biological origin and supporting a robust and complete technical recommendation for the producer, directed by a specialized monitoring of pests and diseases, developed by the consultant team of Sinagro. One of these products is Surtivo® Soy, an innovative larvicide known to control the species Helicoverpa armigera and Chrysodeixis includens - the first baculovirus premix developed in the world for pest management.

The Brazilian farmers can also count on, in the 2018-2019 harvest, the larvicide Armigen®, Cartugen® and Chrysogen®. The first one is recommended in the control of caterpillars of the genus Helicoverpa and Heliothis; the second one targets the caterpillar Spodoptera frugiperda and the third, the species Chrysodeixis includens. Two other new products of the company, which also control the caterpillar Spodoptera eridania, are scheduled to launch for the 2019-20 crop season.

AgBiTech Director for Latin America, Adriano Vilas Boas affirms that the multinational combines long experience in the field, scientific innovation and technological development. "AgBiTech was born in Australia in the year 2000 and soon assumed the leadership of the market for biological protection of crops, with participation above 95%. Our baculovirus performed surprisingly well during critical periods of agriculture in that country, where caterpillars such as Helicoverpa armigera carried the risk of collapse. We are bringing to the Brazilian farmer these positive indicators in the management of caterpillars, in addition to a positive cost-benefit relationship, "he said.

The partnership is also part of the expansion strategy of the Sinagro Group in the country. After having 45% of its shares sold to the UPL Group, and 46% to the Global Capital Fund, a British Investment Fund, the company has the goal of tripling revenue in the area of inputs, reaching revenue total close to R$ 2 billion by 2023. In addition to the commercialization of agricultural inputs, the Sinagro Group also operates in the origination and commercialization of grains.