The business of agriculture sometimes is the business of consolidation. That’s the case with the merger of Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp., an Argentina-based firm, and Marrone Bio Innovations of California. Both are innovators in bio-based crop solutions, bio-nutrition and seed treatments.

“This segment within the input industry is highly fragmented,” said Federico Trucco, CEO of Bioceres. “There are numerous participants, but most are subscale. What you see today is two companies coming together with complementary portfolios and the ability to achieve a global footprint.”

Trucco spoke with Farm Progress recently to explore the merger and the opportunity it brings for the two firms when they are approved to become one.

Bioceres may not be as well known in the North American market, but it has a large footprint in Latin America with its line of micro-beaded fertilizers and seed treatments, as well as seed technologies for drought tolerance, crop resiliency and regenerative agriculture. “Aspirationally, we want to be the leaders in that particular segment of the biologicals industry, and I believe this gives us the opportunity to do so,” he said.

In announcing the merger, Kevin Helash, CEO of Marrone Bio, said the merger “has the potential to accelerate global reach, broaden our product offerings and expand our R&D programs. Consumer and grower demand is accelerating for agricultural products that help produce safe, affordable food in a sustainable manner.”

Marrone Bio has long been an innovator in biological approaches to crop protection and crop health. The merger expands the global footprint for both companies, giving Marrone a leg up in Latin America and Bioceres greater opportunities in North America and Europe.

Major player in Latin America

Bioceres markets products under the Rizobacter name in Latin America. The line includes inoculants and bio-nutrition solutions, and other crop protection and crop nutrition solutions. “We have a 23% global market share in soybean inoculants,” Trucco said. “We do about $200 million-plus in revenues, predominantly in Latin America.”

He added that the company has started expanding into the U.S. and Europe, but Marrone Bio has already been building up a sales force in those two markets. “Which is not easy, but most importantly is in two markets where we have limited presence today,” Trucco noted, pointing out the opportunity the merger brings.

The combined organization, when approved by shareholders, will operate in 46 countries with more than 640 employees, with two wholly owned manufacturing, and research and development facilities in Davis, Calif., and Rosario, Argentina.

This merger “provides a proprietary channel that I do not think any other biological company can offer outside, obviously, industry leaders,” Trucco said.  “Dedicated 100% to biologicals, I don’t think you’ll find anyone with the breadth that these two companies offer.”

Moving forward, Trucco sees a key challenge for the new business. “The challenge is to get these products out of cash crops and into row crops, which is where the most relevant opportunity exists,” he said. “For that, we need efficacy, which we have. We need costs, which is important to replace some of the chemical AI’s, and a lot of work has been done over the last two or three years for that.”

That’s the key — creating biological products at scale so they are competitively priced versus the synthetic chemistry on the market.

Trucco discussed bringing new products to market and not creating a product that is one-size-fits-all. The company is starting an identity preserved program, where participating farmers might be working with products early to test them in the field.

That approach will allow this new firm to match biologicals to different geographies with the farmer-partners. Eventually, Trucco sees the market for biologicals in row crop farming growing, but he knows it will take time.

But expect to see the Bioceres name in row crop country soon. For more information, visit biocerescrops.com.