Santa Clara announces more investments in R&D and experts in regulatory affairs

Upon completing 25 years of history, the Brazilian agrochemical Santa Clara Agrociencia announced further investments in research and development (R&D) and the hiring of experts in regulatory affairs for pesticide registrations.

The company revealed that it had maintained continuous and expressive growth in recent years, reaching an average of 34% per year in the last five harvests, while its market grew 17% in the same period.

Around 8% of its revenue is invested in R&D, which is practically double the sector average, in addition to having a team of in-house researchers covering areas of knowledge such as chemistry, microbiology, and plant nutrition.

This team also has a network of public and private research institutions with approximately 40 partners, who contribute to the development of new products. “The result is the production of our own technologies and several were the object of patent protection, generating a robust pipeline of new solutions that should support the company's coming years,” Santa Clara said.

The industrial unit located in the interior of the state of São Paulo will be expanded to reach the expected volumes in the coming years. Currently, the unit produces formulations of special fertilizers, soluble salts, and soluble concentrates and synthesizes components for multifunctional products, in addition to compounds produced through nanoparticle suspensions.

With this expansion, the company's total area will be tripled, expanding production, storage, laboratory, and corporate office facilities. There will be an increase of more than 4,000m² in the storage and shipping capacity of products, which represents an increase of 125% of the current capacity.

The expansion also includes a new manufacturing unit, which will support the launches of the new product line and will have equipment and technologies for the product manufacturing process.

In addition to the company's physical expansion to Santa Clara, there is also an investment in professionals. Some areas, such as Regulatory Affairs, will be tripled to meet future growth needs, especially those related to launching new product lines.

At the same time, the company also invests heavily in highly qualified employees, ensuring that 80% of the professionals working in the RD&I (Research, Development, and Innovation), QC (Quality Control), AR (Regulatory Affairs), and Technique are masters and doctors.

In addition to traditional scientific training, Santa Clara University implemented an internal professional training program, which prepares teams with specific and customized content for the performance of the function of the different areas.

Among the main challenges for the coming years is the company's entry into the biological products market. Some of the upcoming launches based on biological solutions are being developed in partnership with EMBRAPA, EMBRAPII, and ESALQ-USP with disruptive technologies not yet available in the market in Brazil and worldwide. The adoption of biological products in agriculture has been advocated to promote the sustainability of the agricultural production system.

Santa Clara operates in more than 30 countries, building a great asset in terms of product registrations in European countries and throughout the Americas, and a significant part of its revenue comes from foreign trade.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)