US agricultural company announces commercial launch of biological business in China

The United States-headquartered agricultural chemical and seed company Corteva Agriscience announced the commercial launch of its biological business in the Greater China region on Tuesday, reinforcing the company's effort to contribute to China's sustainable agricultural transformation.

The Greater China region became Corteva's first market in the Asia-Pacific to commercialize the biological business, demonstrating the company's commitment to increasing its investment in China and another move of milestone after the company was spun off from DowDuPont five years ago, said Alec Zheng, president of Corteva Agriscience Greater China.

"With a production base in Qingdao, Shandong province, we'll continue to optimize our local production and supply facilities for biologicals, and strengthen our research and development and supply chain capabilities in China in the future," said Zheng.

"At the meantime, the company will further expand its business and continue to launch new, innovative products in the China market," he said.

Both in China and globally, the agricultural industry is seeking alternatives to chemical pesticides and fertilizers, driven by an increasing pressure on farmers to adopt environmentally friendly practices, said industry insiders. Biologicals utilize materials existing in nature to boost plants health, address challenges of adverse climate and crop protection, and ultimately help farmers increase production.

"Biologicals represent a rapidly growing market opportunity, with a total addressable market expected to reach approximately $30 billion by 2035, constituting 20 percent to 25 percent of the overall crop protection market globally," said Prameet Kamat, commercial director for biologicals, APAC of Corteva Agriscience.

"In China, the biologicals industry has also ushered in a golden period of development with the country's vigorous promotion of agricultural sustainability. Environmental protection standards have therefore become stricter, and highly toxic pesticides have been banned and withdrawn," he said.

According to the China Biopesticide Industry Report released in March, the market size of biologicals was more than 15 billion yuan ($2 billion) in 2022, and was expected to grow to more than 33 billion yuan by 2027, with an average annual compound growth rate of 17.1 percent, exceeding the global level.

"We noticed that the Chinese authorities have been particularly supportive of biological products these years seen from areas, including their embracement for innovations, the registration policies, and the accelerated speed of market approvals," said Zheng.

The company said that biological products will be integrated into the company's existing crop protection solutions, allowing them to create synergies to provide farmers with a comprehensive portfolio of tools that cover the entire planting cycle, support sustainable development, and drive yield growth based on the needs of the local microenvironment and core crops.