CH Biotech was established in 2013 as a private company focusedon providing effective and environmentally responsible crop solutions designed to address the demanding production requirementsof modern agriculture.
In 2023, this biotechnology company went public and today it is chaired by its original founder Cheng-Peng Wu. Headquartered in Nantou, Taiwan, the company has a state-of-the-art laboratory in Zhangbin Industrial Park, Taiwan, a global innovation center in Chung Hsing Park, Taiwan, and a manufacturing center in California, U.S.
Cheng-Peng Wu, CH Biotech founder and CEO
CH Biotech commercializes a comprehensive portfolio of innovative technologies in the areas of plant growth regulators, fertilizers, and biostimulants.
New AG International reached out to Francisco Manzano, Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer, to learn more.
Francisco Manzano, CH Biotech Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer
What are you most focused on within the agriculture industry? What specific products do you manufacture? We are experts in the field of plant growth regulation. Our expertise and R&D competencies in this area have been very helpful during the development of CH Biotech’s new peptide-based biotechnology platform.
Today, we manufacture and sell proprietary plant growth regulators (PGRs) and specialty fertilizers in different parts of the world. Our PGR formulations vary depending on the agronomic need we are trying to address and the timing of application. We have very successful PGR products in the market today like Radiate®, Consensus® and Endurance®, which are marketed and sold by our strategic partner Nutrien Ag Solutions. Our specialty fertilizer portfolio incorporates proprietary technology designed to optimize nutrient acquisition, mobility, and assimilation by the plant. This technology is also present in the market through Nutrien Ag Solutions’s successful NutriSync® line of products.
Most recently, we begun manufacturing and commercializing peptide-based biostimulant solutions in certain Asian markets, and we expect to make this technology available to other geographies like Europe, North America and Latin America.
CH Biotech has been adhering to the core concept of “R&D innovation, precision agriculture, and quality first” since the company was established. Can you expand on that? It’s no secret that our industry is quickly evolving towards the adoption of more sustainable practices. This is partly driven by regulatory demands and by consumer preferences, both of which are rooted in a desire to preserve the integrity of our planet and to protect the health of consumers. These changes in regulation and consumer preferences have accelerated the development and adoption of biological crop solutions.
Our founder, Cheng-Peng Wu, started CH Biotech over 10 years ago guided by the same conservation and preservation principles. He wanted to offer farmers quality crop solutions that are effective in addressing their needs and are respectful with the environment.
Driven by our R&D group in Chung Hsing Park, the company has spent a significant amount of resources to accomplish Mr. Wu’s goal. Our focus is as much on the active ingredients we work with, as it is on the formulation chemistry and optimization of the delivery of active ingredients into the crop.
As the company evolved, we understood that precision agriculture would be an integral part of the future. We created a digital group and invested in our own precision platform and unmanned aerial vehicle fleet that allow us to collect actionable agronomic data. We use the data we collect to predict agronomic outcomes and to prescribe and deliver treatments accordingly. Although it’s still relatively new to CH Biotech, our digital group and capabilities has become a very useful R&D tool to drive innovation. How does CH Biotech promote economic development, energy conservation and carbon reduction, along with food production? Our PGR and fertilizer technologies increase crop productivity and quality – it helps farmers grow more and better-quality crops with the same or a lesser amount of resources (land, fuel, fertilizer, crop protection, etc.). This creates direct economic value for farmers and their community. It also reduces the environmental impact of their crop.
Most recently, we’ve developed a platform for the obtention of peptide groups of interest, which are selected to address specific agronomic needs with precision. These peptides are a prime example of circular economy - we take a byproduct that would otherwise end up polluting our landfills and waterways and transform it instead into highly effective agricultural solutions. This transformation is done in a carbon neutral facility using a state-of-the art subcritical extraction process.
An important area these peptides can address is the topic of nutrient use efficiency. We have been able to identify a series of peptides with direct impact in nutrient uptake and assimilation. Our studies show these peptides can reduce the amount of applied fertilizer significantly, and still preserve or even improve on yield and quality. We continue to evaluate these findings under different fertilization and crop systems, but what we’ve seen so far is promising.
If we add a potential reduction of applied fertilizers to the fact that these peptides are obtained through a circular economy model, I think we can confidently say both the economic and environmental impact of this technology would be substantial too.
How do you keep apprised of stakeholder concerns? CH Biotech’s board of directors makes sure the company is focused on satisfying our stakeholder concerns. But the company’s commitment to stakeholders is truly engrained in the company culture. CH Biotech is run and operated by a talented group of professionals who are passionate about our mission to feed the world in a sustainable way which also aligns well with our stakeholder desires and concerns.
How do you work with distributors? We are a B2B company, a “wizard behind the curtain” of some sort, so we cater to marketers who take our technology to distribution.
Loveland Products Inc., the company behind Nutrien Ag Solutions’ proprietary line of solutions, is our strongest partner by far and our route to market in the regions they operate in like the USA, Canada, Australia and Brazil. As we expand our business outside of Nutrien’s geographic footprint, we are finding additional forward-thinking partners with an interest in taking our solutions to market. Sometimes this takes the form of a marketer who goes through their distribution channel, and sometimes it takes the form of a distributor who is looking for their own private label. Our business model is flexible enough, so we can adapt to the best go-to-market strategy in a given region.
Let’s move on to your new signature product: new peptide-based biostimulant technology. What is this technology all about? We call this technology “Precision-Oriented-Peptides”. A peptide is a short string of 2 to 50 amino acids bonded together, and they are the building block of proteins. Peptides play an essential role in regulating biochemical processes, which are fundamental for plant physiological functions.
At a fundamental level, peptides act as signal molecules that trigger both short- and long-distance cell-to-cell signaling in plants. These signals are involved in many aspects of plant growth and development like root development, microtube organization, and floral abscission. They are also essential for helping plants respond to abiotic stress like drought or extreme temperatures.
And they are also involved in nutrient assimilation.
Precision-Oriented-Peptides are peptide formulations that have been screened for, and carefully selected to influence specific physiological functions of a plant above the rest. In other words, we create formulations that can address a specific biological process in the plant and therefore deliver a more focused agronomic benefit. This is the “precision” behind our technology.
Why is this important? Narrowing down the functional activity of a biostimulant formulation allows farmers to address specific agronomic problems effectively and more consistently. It essentially puts the right tool for the job in their toolbox.
For example, if a crop is subject to a particular form of abiotic stress like drought, a farmer could spray a seaweed extract to provide the plant with a cocktail of beneficial compounds. These compounds activate a cascade of reactions within the plant that will drive multiple positive effects like root development, vegetative growth, photosynthesis, and enhanced drought tolerance, among other. The plant is essentially kicked into gear and direct its energy at multiple biological processes at once.
Following this example, Precision-Oriented-Peptides will skip this general cascade effect a seaweed extract would have and go directly to a narrower biochemical process that is specific to addressing drought resilience. Getting closer to the biological process we are trying to influence helps the plant narrow down its energy in addressing the target stress directly and more effectively.
Who/what is the target of this technology? Our Precision-Oriented-Peptides are designed with the farmer in mind. They target and address specific farming pain points like nutrient use efficiency, loss to abiotic stress, early planting challenges, crop quality, oxidative damage, etc. Because our manufacturing process allow us to concentrate on a particular group of peptides with specific actions, we can create solutions to address those farmer pain points separately – or in combination – depending on the agronomic needs. This is a versatile platform that will allow us to continue to bring meaningful solutions to our partners and farmers.
We have developed and validated three initial Precision-Oriented-Peptide foliar formulations, specifically for the row crop, specialty crop, and turf & ornamental markets. We are however evaluating other candidates for applications in fertilizer coating or seed treatment, as an example.
This technology seems to be far along the way. Why haven’t we heard about it before? Many people in our industry are not aware that CH Biotech has been bringing effective solutions to farmers for over a decade through brands like Loveland’s Radiate, Maximun N-Pact, Endurance, or NutriSync. That’s because CH Biotech’s business model is purely B2B – we equip our partners with science-backed technology, and they run extensive field development efforts and take it to market under their brand name. We bring cutting-edge technology to the table, and they bring strong field development and market access – it’s a win-win scenario.
How will it be introduced? We plan to introduce Precision-Oriented-Peptides in the USA though our key partner Loveland Products, a division of Nutrien Ag Solutions. We hope to follow suit in other international markets as well. Loveland is already a leader in this space, and we are confident this technology will help them take an even stronger position.
What are the benefits? Each of the three formulations we’ve developed to date (row crop, specialty crop, turf & ornamental) contain a group of functional peptides curated to address relevant crop-specific challenges. For example, the row crop formulation contains a group of peptides that were selected because they drive nutrient use efficiency processes within the plant, as well as root development processes. For the specialty crop formulation, peptides were selected for their involvement in the determination of crop’s quality and other organoleptic traits. And finally, the turf & ornamental formulation is made using peptides that enhance chlorophyll formation (green colour), cell structure strength, and flower quality.
While these peptides were uniquely selected for their desired function in row crops, specialty crops, and turf & ornamental crops, we included another set of peptides in all three of these formulations because of their ability to scavenge free radicals and increase endogenous antioxidant defenses. The significance of this antioxidant activity is huge, because it is well known that when plants experience any form stress, they respond by overproducing different forms of reactive oxygen species that ultimately damage plant cells and hamper normal plant growth and development. By giving plants the ability to cope with oxidative stress, we help them go through their normal physiological functions and get closer to their potential.
What’s next? We are looking forward to seeing Precision-Oriented-Peptides progressively rolled out in the next couple of years, with the help of our key global partners. The molecular, plant, and field level data we’ve developed so far looks promising and is building confidence for future product launches. In the meantime, we’ll continue to work on the identification, screening, and validation of new peptides coming out of our platform and state-of-the art 350,000 sq. ft. innovation center in Nantou, Taiwan. ●
