AgBiTech holds almost half of Brazil’s caterpillar bioinsecticide market

AgBiTech, the leading international company that produces baculovirus-based bioinsecticides, which are specifically used for controlling caterpillars in agriculture, has remained at the forefront of the market in Brazil in the 2021/22 soybean, corn and cotton harvests.

According to the study, titled, FarmTrak Biologicals, by the Kynetec consultancy, the Australian-American company held 42% of the market in the 2020-21 cycle, rising to 49%.

Pedro Marcellino, Marketing Director of AgBiTech Brasil

Pedro Marcellino, Marketing Director of AgBiTech Brasil, said this performance is due to a rise of more than 30% in sales of the brand's bioinsecticides, which was 17 points above the growth rate of the market for bioinsecticides against caterpillars (13%).

″We grew twice as fast as the biolagarticides market, mainly due to the effectiveness of our baculoviruses against pests that are difficult to manage, such as Helicoverpa and Spodoptera frugiperda,″ Marcellino said.

The loss of efficiency of so-called state-of-the-art biotechnologies incorporated in the different transgenic seeds also contributed to AgBiTech's performance during the harvest, he added.

Another factor was the increased resistance of caterpillars to different chemical molecules used in the production of conventional insecticides.

However, Marcellino said that available high-quality biological defensives have advanced significantly in recent years.

″Innovation in this area advances crop after crop. Today, there are cutting-edge formulations that are highly effective in pest management. Biological control has gained market share, is here to stay, and is continuously supporting our business in the country,″ he added.

Kynetec's survey confirms Marcellino’s analysis

The FarmTrak Biologicals Crop 2021/22 study pointed out that the bioinputs market, in general, grew by 53% from US$337 million to US$515 million during the 2021-2022 harvest, covering bioinsecticides, bionematicides, biofungicides and bioinoculants.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)