Beijing Multigrass, renowned in over 60 countries for its plant protection with natural essence

Beijing Multigrass Formulation Co., Ltd. (Beijing Multigrass) is a leading botanical pesticide manufacturer in China, dedicated to R&D, registration and sales of biopesticides. The company has patented active ingredients including matrine, gibberellic acid, spinosad, fungous proteoglycan and crude powder of biostimulants (e.g. seaweed essence). 

The company also has two core technologies for plant extracts and microbial fermentation. In 2012, the biopesticide production base built by Beijing Multigrass with a huge investment began operations, with a capacity of 500 tons/year fermentation products (mainly spinosad and gibberellins). Beijing Multigrass is the first OFDC certified pesticide company in China. Their organic matrine and spinosad products have been certified by OFDC, as well as OMRI and ECOCERT.

The company also provides crop nutrition products such as seaweed fertilizer and amino acids, which, combined with biopesticides, effectively solve the problems related to crop nutrition and protection in organic and low-pollution farming, offering a well-rounded service for growers. With the concept of “From Natural Essence, For Healthy Life”, Beijing Multigrass has provided its sustainable solutions to growers in more than 60 countries, and enjoyed a worldwide reputation.

AgroPages recently interviewed Beijing Multigrass’ General Manager, DU Wei, who talked about the advantages and market performance of their products, their experience in market expansion, and the plan for new product launches. 

What are the advantages of Beijing Multigrass’ biological pesticides compared with similar products on the market?

Established in 1996 and headquartered in Beijing, Beijing Multigrass is an enterprise integrating the research, development, manufacture, sales and service of biopesticides and biostimulants. Facing the huge challenge of sustainable agriculture, we stick to the concept of health, environmental protection, safety and high efficiency, provides high-quality agro-inputs, and helps growers improve the crop yield and quality with our portfolio, which helps the world tackle with hunger, soil degradation, water pollution and other problems. 

Focusing on innovation, we have been engaged in the study of traditional Chinese herbal medicine’s mode of actions. Utilizing the most advanced ultrasonic plant extraction technology and optimized formulations, we have successfully created the Baicao product line including botanical insecticides and fungicides etc., which are the first of their kinds in the world. These products are environmentally friendly, safe for non-target organisms, low risk in resistance development, unique in action mode, and effective in facilitating crop growth and immunity.

What new products has Beijing Multigrass launched? Can you please talk about the product highlights?

The 2% matrine AS (trade name: Bipro) is a brand-new curative fungicide based on the extract of Sophora flavescens, a medicinal plant, combined with other plant extracts under a rational ratio, offering effective control of many plant diseases such as gray mold, powdery mildew and leaf mold.

Table 1. Gray mold suppression with different dilution multiples of Bipro

What countries are the main markets for Beijing Multigrass business? How about the market performance of your products?

Every time our teams travel abroad, we visit the fields and farms to learn the specific conditions of the local agriculture and communicate with clients regarding the products and their uses. Based on what we learn from the visits, our company continues to optimize the product formulation, so that our products can further meet the demands based on the local situations. That is why our products have been widely used for more than 20 years. 

Today, our matrine products have a big reputation all over the world and have become our flagship products. Gibberellic acid tablets have been widely praised since its launch. Our rotenone, fungous proteoglycan, oligosaccharins and other products also present a good market performance worldwide. In addition to these competitive botanical products, we are expanding our bio-based portfolio, and investing heavily on R&D on novel organic agro-inputs.

Our Spinosad, as the technical or formulated products we are investing in, has various advantages such as a broad spectrum of targeting pests, high efficiency, safe to human, non-target animals and the environment, as well as its biodegradability. Our Spinosad products are highly recommended by many evaluation agencies for use in organic agriculture.

At present, Beijing Multigrass operates in over 40 countries, and our products are sold in more than 60 countries. We have a solid customer base and a good reputation all over the world.

Beijing Multigrass’ products have obtained organic certificates such as OMRI and ECOCERT. Why does Beijing Multigrass value these certificates? How do they contribute to your business expansion in the international markets?

In China, our OMRI-listed pesticides are mainly used in organic farms and purchased for the government’s projects. In international markets, consumers are demanding more and more safe food for good health. Growers applying OMRI-listed (or other certified) organic pesticides would make their produce more popular with the consumers.

There are differences in quality between organic and conventional products, but it is hard to tell the differences or recognize the organic ones based on their appearance. Therefore, organic agriculture emphasizes the production procedure, instead of the products themselves. It requires a trustworthy certificate to guarantee that the products are produced strictly following specified standards.

What is your plan in the coming five years? Are there new products to be registered or launched?

We will continue to apply for product registration in the international market, and strengthen our core competitiveness. We will enhance the advantages of ecological products and commit ourselves to develop sustainable agriculture. Also, we will constantly innovate in technologies and commercial business models, to become an innovative biopesticide supplier for the global markets. 

Below are our new products registered or to be launched soon:

Oligosaccharins + pyraclostrobin

Spinosad DP to control insect pests on stored grains 

Gibberellic acid SP

Tolfenpyrad SC

Picoxystrobin SC

Abscisic acid

BT WP

Dinotefuran SC