ABIM 2022: Biobest’s Pronemite wins Bernard Blum Award 2022

Date:10-28-2022

The 2022 Bernard Blum Award-winning product for Novel Biocontrol Solutions was Pronemite, manufactured by Biobest.

The award was announced during the Annual Biocontrol Industry Meeting (ABIM 2022), which was covered by AgroPages.

Pronemite (Pronematus ubiquitus) is a new category of commercial arthropod biocontrol agent that concurrently targets the key pest, russet mite, and the major fungal disease, powdery mildew.

The product was designed to control small, hard-to-access pest mites, such as tomato russet mite (Aculops lycopersici), and the fungal disease powdery mildew (Oidium neolycopersici), two serious challenges facing cultivated crops.

″Pronemite is a genuine breakthrough. It is representative of a new family of beneficial mites, and it is the first effective biocontrol solution for russet mite control,″ said Felix Wackers (Biobest R&D Director).

″It is the first commercialized fungal disease control that uses a mite, and is uniquely the first commercialized biological control organism shown to simultaneously control a key pest and a problem pathogen affecting a protected crop. Therefore, it represents a whole new category of biocontrol,″ he added.

″Large populations of this arthropod mite can be built up preventatively within a crop using our feed supplement, Nutrimite. We have proved that creating a ‘standing army’ of this mites on the crop can be highly effective in preventing the infection and spread of russet mite and/or powdery mildew,″ Wackers said.

″Pronemite is set to become a major game-changer in biological crop protection programs, as it eliminated the need for repeat insecticide or fungicide applications. In commercial strawberry crops, powdery mildew can necessitate 10 to 22 fungicide applications over a four-month cropping cycle,″ he added.

″While enhancing sustainable production, Pronemite opens the door for the establishment of other biocontrol agents, whose full potentials are currently hampered by the widespread use of pesticides. Therefore, it can be a key part of a more complete biological control program, playing an important role in helping to minimize and eliminate chemical residues on produce,″ he further added.

Hanne Steel (Biobest Product Portfolio Manager for Beneficials) said that ″in a class of its own, we are already seeing a lot of enthusiasm for Pronemite in the marketplace. Growers like its innovative natural product and are keen to further reduce their reliance on crop protection chemicals.″

″The exciting discovery that arthropods can effectively control diseases opens many new opportunities for biological crop protection. Almost all predatory mites commercialized for crop protection are from the Phytoseiidae family. Pronemite is from a separate superfamily, Tydeoidea. As this mite has a widespread distribution, with appropriate production registration, Pronemite has the potential to be used worldwide without concerns for local biodiversity,″ she added.

″Already proven to work in various crop conditions, we are at the commercial stage, collaborating with strawberry and tomato growers in Europe to optimize Pronemite’s performance on a range of crops before its widespread launch next year. Largely overlooked until now, this group of arthropod mites will have a strong impact on biological crop protection and sustainable production in the future,″ she further added.

″Innovations have always been key drivers for the biocontrol industry. That is why the Bernard Blum Award is given annually to the most innovative biocontrol product of the year,″ said the event's organizers.

Every year since 2015, an independent jury selects the best biocontrol product from several entries, which offer effective pest or disease management solutions while having a low impact on human health and the environment.

The Silver Award went to Plutex, a highly selective baculovirus that controls Plutella xylostella developed by the Andermatt Group.

The Bronze Award went to the Spanish company, Agrobío, which developed a new strain of generalist predator, Orius laevigatus.

The winner of the new category, ″Best Innovative Product Assisting Uptake of Biocontrol,″ was the product, Shindo Trap, from CBC Europe.

The company said that the Shindo Trap uses pheromones and produces vibrations (biotremology) that attract target insects.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)