What an extraordinary way to cap off the year! We are proud to announce that our innovative approach to crop stimulation has been awarded the Innovation Prize at the Biostimulants World Congress in Miami. Reflecting on the event, which brought together over 1,000 industry leaders for 3.5 days of inspiring presentations and discussions, our Business Development Director, Bianca Forte, shared her key takeaways.
Technology Developments: Science-Based Products
“The event began on a high note for me, as the vision shared during the opening address by Patrick Brown, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, resonates with our work. Patrick emphasized the transformative potential of targeting signalling pathways in plant physiology to drive the next wave of innovation in crop stimulation,” Bianca remarked.
At SugaROx, our flagship active ingredient is grounded in 25 years of pioneering science by Rothamsted Research into how plants utilize and allocate carbon. One of their discoveries is the role of trehalose-6-phosphate (T6P), a natural sugar present in all plants, in regulating carbon use and allocation. T6P deactivates SnRC1, an enzyme that signals a “famine state” in plants. Deactivation of the enzyme pushes more carbon into grains.
We agree with Patrick that signalling pathways offer immense potential to boost yields, and we are excited to have exclusive access to a technology invented by plant biologists from Rothamsted in collaboration with organic chemists from Oxford University to overcome technical bottlenecks in these areas.
T6P’s strong charge prevents it from being absorbed by plants when applied as a foliar spray. To overcome this, the academics from Rothamsted and Oxford developed a proprietary version of T6P absorbable by plants. Their results, published in Nature, demonstrated the technology’s potential to boost wheat yields by up to 20%.
Industry Insights: Market Trends and Challenges
Key presentations from industry leaders, including Warrick Steptoe of Kynetec and Manel Cervera of Dunham Trimmer, highlighted the rapid growth of the biostimulants market, currently expanding at a 12% CAGR. This growth is driving demand for innovative products, with distributors eager to diversify their portfolios and Tier 1 and Tier 2 agrochemical companies accelerating new developments.
However, two significant challenges could impact the sector’s trajectory:
- Regulation: In unregulated markets like the UK, products are often launched with insufficient evidence of effectiveness or mode of action. Even in regulated regions, such as the EU, it remains to be seen if frameworks like the EU Fertilising Products Regulation 2019/1009 are robust enough to prioritize sound, science-backed innovations like ours.
- Commoditization: As new players enter the market, traditional products – such as algae and plant extracts or acid-based formulations – are increasingly commoditized. This drives prices down, threatening the viability of businesses that rely exclusively on these materials. Differentiated solutions, like our single-molecule formulations, can address this.
Do You Share Our Vision? Join Us!
At SugaROx, our mission is to become a global leader in the science of crop stimulation. We are building a multidisciplinary team of plant biologists, organic chemists, and data scientists to uncover new physiological targets and design innovative ways of delivering natural molecules inside plant cells.
Using a B2B business model, we are seeking partnerships with go-to-market channels that have a deep understanding of farmers’ practices and needs. If you fit that profile, contact our Business Development Director Bianca Forte to open a dialogue with us and follow us on LinkedIn.