Futureco Bioscience has entered into an equity alliance with Sumi Agro Europe

Date:02-15-2017

Futureco Bioscience S.A. has agreed to sell a minority stake to Sumi Agro Europe Ltd., SAE, a subsidiary company of the Japanese group Sumitomo Corporation, engaged in crop protection and marketing, in an attempt to attain strategic mutual growth.

Futureco Bioscience, investigates, develops, manufactures and commercializes biostimulants, biofertilizers and biocontrol products for more than 20 years, and has been growing significantly for the last five years, expanding its supply worldwide in 28 countries. Collaboration with research institutes and universities has been integrated with its practical agronomic knowledge to focus discovery and selection of commercially valuable biocontrol and biostimulant agents.

With this investment, SAE will access a strong discovery pipeline and manufacturing competence that will significantly enhance its portfolio in this key growth sector, and Futureco Bioscience will access the distribution network of SAE in countries where it’s not present yet, and expects to accelerate the field development phase of its pipeline portfolio through collaboration with the SAE Development Division.

SAE began marketing crop protection products in Europe, more than 25 years ago, and today has a direct distribution presence in 16 countries through its subsidiary and affiliate companies. The wide portfolio and flexible supply options from Futureco Bioscience provides an opportunity to strengthen SAE position as a provider of new technology solutions that are developed for local farming systems.The expansion of the business in biocontrol solutions is one of the key strategies of SAE, and is expected to bring complementary synergy with its crop protection products in both product development and sales.

Rafael Juncosa, CEO of Futureco Bioscience states “This agreement represents a definite step towards Futureco Bioscience growth and worldwide comercial expansion.” Sumitomo Corporation has engaged in crop protection products for over 40 years since it started exporting Japanese manufacturers’ products in the 1970s, thereby contributing to improving the productivity and efficiency of agriculture. Currently, Sumitomo Corporation is conducting import and distribution in more than 30 countries, primarily in Europe and North America, under the strategy of further developing the downstream of value chains, with a view to achieving total sales of 1.22 billion euros.