Biologics are becoming a new outlet in the world agrochemical market

As one of the world's leading agritech companies, Bayer Cropscience is actively responding to the challenges of climate change and food security. Since 2015, Bayer Cropscience has partnered with nearly 30 independent, entrepreneurial farms around the world to demonstrate customized solutions, provide advanced tools, field farming models, proactive management practices and partnerships. Under the new cycle, what new development opportunities will Bayer have? Mengying Hu, chief operating officer of Bayer Cropscience Greater China, answered questions

At present, Bayer has about 100 plant protection products in five categories in China, and is the first multinational company in China to obtain certification of green food production materials. Standing at the threshold of great changes unseen in the world in a century, agriculture has entered a deep-water stage of high-quality development. Under the new cycle, what new development opportunities will Bayer have? How will they respond to new challenges?

Q: What will Bayer Cropscience look like in 2023? What are the development keywords of this year?

A: 2023 will be a challenging year for the agricultural materials industry. Fierce market competition and rising costs have become the trend and challenge of global industry development. Against this backdrop, Bayer Cropscience China achieved its expected performance in 2023. From a global perspective, as of the third quarter of 2023, Bayer Cropscience's global sales were also flat compared with the same period last year.

This year, Bayer Cropscience uses "collaborative innovation" and "regenerative agriculture" as key words. While conducting extensive cooperation with local governments, industries and enterprises, Bayer regards regenerative agriculture as an important direction to practice agricultural innovation and sustainability, leads the development of global agriculture, and contributes Bayer's strength to the sustainable and high-quality development of Chinese agriculture.

Q: This year, Bayer Cropscience said to seize the global renewable agriculture opportunities in China, may I ask what is the meaning of renewable agriculture? What was the original idea behind regenerative agriculture?

A: According to a third-party survey of global growers, growers around the world are concerned about the impact of climate change on farm operations, and in China, more than half of respondents believe that improving infrastructure would be an effective way to address this challenge. As a global leader in agricultural innovation, Bayer continues to practice the concept of "putting agriculture first" and hopes to leverage the strengths of its product portfolio and research and development pipeline, based on its experience serving global growers and market leadership, to help agriculture move towards a more sustainable future.

In Bayer's view, regenerative agriculture, as an agricultural system that aims to "improve quality and efficiency, produce more with less, and recover with more", is a sustainable solution to the systemic challenges of climate change and food security, and has unique development advantages and needs. In order to make the practice of this concept in China more standard, standardized and quantified, Bayer Cropscience is deeply involved in the compilation of the first domestic standard for renewable agriculture, "Renewable Agriculture Management and Standardized Planting". This standard was officially released in January this year, pointing the way for more enterprises in the agricultural field in the future.

In this context, the Group standard defines the term "regenerative agriculture" : Regenerative agriculture aims to achieve agricultural sustainability through the conservation of land use and nature-based solutions, while reducing soil disturbance and chemical inputs. At the same time, regenerative agriculture is also an agricultural model that increases soil organic matter content, improves soil health, maximizes biodiversity and is environmentally friendly.

Q:How does Bayer, one of the world's leading crop protection companies, respond to changing needs and challenges with innovative and differentiated technologies?

A: As one of the world's leading agricultural technology companies, Bayer has always seen innovation as an inexhaustible source of growth. At present, the application of cutting-edge digital technology is shining in the field of agricultural innovation. Bayer's new CropKey approach uses new technologies powered by artificial intelligence and computational modeling to discover what can alter or inhibit the action of proteins needed by weeds and pests, bringing breakthrough innovations to crop protection research and development. Recently, the first representative results of the CropKey approach are moving from concept to reality, including the first new herbicide with an innovative mechanism of action for post-seedling weed control in 30 years, and a new fungicide with an innovative mechanism of action for broad spectrum control of fungal leaf spot.

While continuing to deepen research and development based on a global vision, Bayer is also continuing to increase investment in China. In 2023, Bayer officially opened its Innovation Center in Danyang, Jiangsu Province, one of 17 Bayer innovation centers around the world, equipped with modern agricultural facilities and professional R&D staff to conduct field testing and indoor research on a variety of key crop targets, enabling "innovation empowerment and digital development." In addition, Bayer is also actively exploring local cooperative innovation. In 2023, it achieved cooperation with Sino-Agri and Hailir, and further expanded its product line through third-party authorization services and other models to help China's agriculture reduce costs and increase efficiency, and meet the diversified needs of the agricultural market.

Q: What are the biggest challenges and vents in China's agricultural materials market in the next 3 to 5 years?

A: With the continuous development of the agricultural materials industry, as well as the continuous release of domestic market capacity, it is foreseeable that the competition in China's agricultural materials market will become increasingly fierce. From the short-term market situation, the price fluctuation of the technical market, the poor match between supply and demand, and the "one certificate and one product" are put on the agenda, which will also bring certain challenges to the operation of agricultural materials enterprises.

In terms of opportunities, the just-released 2024 Central Document No. 1 shows that food security has always been highly valued by the country. To build an agricultural power and promote rural revitalization, the agricultural materials industry has great potential. At the press conference on the operation of agricultural and rural economy in 2023 just held by the State New Office, it was mentioned that the effect of "reducing the quantity and increasing the efficiency" of fertilizers and pesticides in 2023 will be achieved in the green development of agriculture and the improvement of the agricultural ecological environment. The direction of green agricultural development will also bring confidence and promotion for agricultural enterprises to continuously develop green and efficient agricultural solutions, improve agricultural production efficiency and sustainability.

Focusing on product applications, biologics are becoming a new outlet in the world agrochemical market, not only with a wide range of applications, but also with outstanding advantages in terms of high safety, promoting plant health and environmental friendliness. In recent years, the compound annual growth rate of biologics in the plant protection market is very high, and the prospect is broad. The direction of regenerative agriculture advocated and deployed by Bayer is very much in line with this. In addition to the harmonious unity of ideas, the innovation factor in Bayer's DNA continues to play a role, and a steady stream of output into the Chinese market. Bayer's crop health product line in China is becoming more complete, and we plan to market our innovative biologics products in the future to support farmers in more efficient and rewarding production operations.

In addition, in the next few years, China's biological breeding industrialization will be further promoted, bringing certain opportunities to the agricultural market. Non-selective herbicides, such as Bayer's Glyphosate product Roundup ®, will have a wider space to play, and the application prospects will be expanded.

Q: What are Bayer's product solutions and business rules in terms of sustainability and innovation in recent years? What are the priorities for development?

A: In terms of innovation, the current Bayer Cropscience R&D pipeline covers many new technologies such as customized seeds and next-generation breeding technologies, transforming trait technologies, and sustainable small molecule technologies. In recent years, the latest breakthroughs in the field of life sciences and digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning are being widely applied in the field of agricultural innovation. Bayer collaborates with innovative companies on a global scale by adopting an "open innovation" approach to collaboration, such as the French research institute iMEAN, which combines data, modeling and advanced algorithms to accelerate the discovery of new environmentally friendly products, and the American institute Kebotix, which combines data, artificial intelligence and robotics to accelerate the synthesis of new molecules.

In China, Bayer continues to accelerate the pace of new product launches and plans to bring more new products to the market in 2024. In addition, local cooperation has always been the focus of Bayer's attention. In 2023, Bayer has established cooperation with two outstanding Chinese local enterprises, Sino-Agri and Hailir, to force the mid-end product market, so that the low-price and high-quality mid-end products can benefit more small and medium-sized farmers, so that the experience accumulated by Bayer in the global perspective can meet the needs of China's agriculture and meet the needs of industry and growers.

In terms of sustainability, Bayer has continued to promote the development of renewable agriculture in China in recent years, which will continue to be one of the key directions of Bayer's future development. Through the establishment of extensive cooperation with the upstream and downstream of the food chain, Bayer explores renewable agriculture solutions that are more suitable for China's national conditions, making concept advocacy and practical practice parallel, and helping China's agriculture to develop towards sustainable and high-quality.

Q:In recent years, Bayer has successively launched a variety of crop nutrition products in China, which have been highly sought after by the market. For this area, will Bayer continue to strengthen the layout and launch new products?

A：Growers at the production end are increasingly demanding improved crop yields and quality, and consumers are expecting higher quality and safer produce. As I mentioned just now, Bayer's crop health product line is becoming more and more perfect, and in recent years, we have launched a series of nutritional products that closely meet the needs of the production end, and have received a warm response from the market. Looking to the future, Bayer will also continue to strengthen the layout of the crop health product line and introduce more new products with high nutrition.