Tuesday, Syngenta Group announced it acquired Valagro, a biological company based in Atessa, Italy. This purchase gives the company a stronger foothold into biologicals and asserts their commitment to its ‘Good Growth Plan’ to improve environmental sustainability.
Valagro has been an active player in the ag market for 40 years, serving Europe, North America, Asia and Latin America. It has more than 700 employees, 13 subsidiaries and eight production sites around the world. What drew Syngenta to the company the most, however, was their commitment to science-backed innovation.
“We have a common base on science, when we innovate, we apply science to the biologicals,” says Giuseppe Natale, CEO of Valagro in an interview with AgWeb. “The old perception of biologicals was it was a remedy like what grandmamma would give. So, it’s a really important differentiation for the company that we invest in research.”
The company will continue to sell its biological products with its own branding and distribution channels. Syngenta will help scale up production and enable more research. Today the company focuses mainly on biostimulants and specialty nutrients.
“Most of our product is used on fruit and vegetables, with about 70% of our sales there,” Natale explains. “The real growth opportunity that we see is having adoption on row crop. The synergy and experience of Syngenta will be fundamental to speed up this process.”
Many of Valagro’s products are already marketed in the U.S. but expect to see more in the row crop arena in coming years. Seed treatments, foliar applications and other forms of biological applications are all being considered and tested to see what works best for farmers.
Boosting sustainable practices
With more consumers asking for fewer pesticides, weeds and bacteria evolving and many other changes coming to agricultural production, Syngenta sees the biological space booming with opportunity. The company anticipates the biological market will double in size over the next five years.
“As part of our Good Growth Plan, and part of what Syngenta is focused on is really underlined by sustainability,” says Cory Hucks, global head of biologicals for Syngenta. “How do we address climate change, how do we make plant more resilient in the future? Biologicals is a growing area and becoming more important.”
Earlier this year, Syngenta Group was formed, formerly China Chemical (Shanghai) Agricultural Technology Corporation, is a wholly owned subsidiary of ChemChina that includes 100% shares of Syngenta, 74.02% shares of ADAMA Ltd., and will include major ag assets from Sinochem Group. The Syngenta Good Growth Plan was created a few years ago with the goal to reduce agriculture’s carbon footprint and help farmers deal with extreme weather patterns caused by climate change.
Because Syngenta is a seeds and crop protection company, Hucks says they’re well positioned to help find the right mix of seed technology, synthetic chemicals and biologicals to achieve the highest level of sustainability and efficacy for their farmers. It’s no one solution-it’ll take a system of products working together to create a sustainable future.
Financial details of this transaction have not been disclosed.
