Biowish Technologies will be applying a further focus on its agricultural business after selling its environmental management business at the end of 2024. For more than a decade, Rod Vautier has led the company to add its biological products to traditional fertilizers to create enhanced efficiency fertilizers.
What has been behind the development of Biowish?
In the biologicals space, we stand out because we are the confluence of two mega trends. One is biologicals, which are being more widely accepted and adopted. The second is fertilizer enhancements, which in the past have been mostly chemical based. With our technology we are specifically able to coat our biology on the -main types of fertilizer used around the world. We’re able to keep it shelf stable, and we deliver biologically enhanced fertilizer with zero practice changes from the farmer. They use the fertilizer just as they did yesterday but with tomorrow’s benefits.
How do you describe Biowish?
The revolutionary Biowish Crop Liquid is applied to dry fertilizer or mixed with liquid fertilizer. We’ve focused on the agricultural market since 2016. We use contract sourcing partners, but we do the final product manufacturing. The majority of our business by volume is coating fertilizer at the point of manufacture—just before it goes into packaging or storage. And in the U.S. our primary commercial partner is ADM, they are a fertilizer distributor, and they are coating at their depots.
Why is now the time for Biowish to focus on the agriculture market?
Biowish has got to the point of its evolution, and it has validation of more than 300 high-quality independent research trials. With our global leading partnerships, SABIC, Syngenta, ADM to name a few, and local champion companies we have the technology and credentialing to go further into the ag market. It’s apparent to us that we can add the greatest value in agriculture, and this focus on the ag business will enable us to bring additional products to farmers.
Can you share a bit about milestones for the company so far?
After developing the Biowish Crop Liquid formulation in 2016, we spent three and a half years building data across a wide range of crops, soil types, climates, and management practices. We did our first commercialization in Vietnam in 2019, where rice farmers do three crop rotations a year, which was great for our product development. As quickly as we could, we came back to the U.S. and began the true commercial product launch in 2021. We’ve surpassed 9 million acres of product applied around the world. By early next year will be used on more than 10 million acres.
What should be known about product placement?
Biowish defies the rules of agriculture. It’s generally true things will work better in some soils, crops, or conditions. Actually, Biowish has its greatest benefits in its consistency of performance regardless of these variables. The product is extremely consistent because of its unique mode of action. In the rhizophagy cycle, Biowish is taken up in the root zone, the roots assimilate the organisms, and act to elongate the roots for greater root mass and more root hair. Biowish is a catalyst for this continuous cycle in the greater microbial rhizosphere.
We get an average of 86% win rate–yield raise of 7.7%. In the U.S., the crops where we see the best performance, are corn, wheat, rice and soybeans.
What should retailers know about the product?
Typically, the product has a 12-month shelf life once applied to most fertilizers. We want to have good relationships with the supply chain to the farmer. Our data should give them confidence to bring this product to the farmer, and we can give them the convenience of how our product is applied. They can add value and capture additional margin.
What’s the product price?
The first price that matters is the return on investment. The rule of thumb is 3 to 1. We easily provide that, and in many cases it’s well beyond that. The second price that matters is the risk price to try. Some biologicals are expensive, which is a huge impediment to trial. In the U.S., we think that’s $5 to $7/acre. And we have seen how farmers can choose to safely reduce fertilizer rates if they use our product. For example, if you did a 10% reduction of total nutrient input, you still get an average uplift of 4.5%. If you do a 20% rate reduction, you are statistically going to get the same yield, however by far the most common use of BiOWiSH fertilizer enhancement is in full fertility programs.
About Biowish:
Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, BiOWiSH Technologies, Inc. is a global provider of biotechnology solutions for the agriculture industry and partners with fertilizer manufacturers and distributors to help farmers increase crop production sustainably, safely and cost effectively.
A Bit More Personal:
Rod grew up in Perth, Australia and was one of the founders of BiOWiSH while living in Sydney Australia. As an avid scuba diver and water sports enthusiast, Rod splits his time between Chicago and Puerto Vallarta Mexico where he has a home, when he’s not travelling to BiOWiSH’s many global markets.
