Respected throughout the biologicals industry, Symborg possesses a diversified existing portfolio, an emerging biocontrol pipeline, and a skilled employee base with robust technical knowledge and demand generation expertise. On Sept. 22, Corteva, Inc. and Symborg announced that Corteva had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Symborg. New AG International Editor-in-Chief Luke Hutson sat down with Jesús Juárez, CEO and founding partner of Symborg.
Jesús Juárez
Symborg has had a busy couple of years, with product launches, distribution deals and partnerships. Before we dive into the details, can you give a brief overview of Symborg's history in recent years? Symborg took its first steps in 2010 with a team formed by two people, Jesús Juárez and Félix Fernández, the founding partners of the company. The headquarters was a 10-square-metre office in the business incubator of the European Business and Innovation Center of Murcia (CEEIM). In 2022, Symborg has a team of more than 100 employees worldwide, with a commercial presence in more than 50 countries and nine subsidiaries in Spain and Portugal, France, U.S., Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Turkey and China. In 2010, Symborg's product portfolio focused on a biotech solution for farmers, the biostimulant MycoUp. In 2022, Symborg has launched 10 products on the market, including biostimulants and biofertilizers, with new launches expected very soon that also include innovative biocontrol solutions.
As you mentioned, Symborg now covers the three 'B's – biostimulant, biofertilizer, biocontrol. Was that always part of the plan? Symborg has dedicated more than one million hours of research to the development of biotechnological solutions based on microorganisms and biomolecules with which farmers can maximize their crop yields while minimizing their environmental impact. The biostimulant, biofertilizer and biocontrol tools that we have put on the market over the last few years and that are yet to come are a result of this investment in R&D and listening to the needs of farmers, helping them to maintain or improve their profitability, while respecting the environment and complying with new international regulatory requirements.
Let's go back to the starting point for Symborg - a variety of mycorrhizal fungi Glomus iranicum var. tenuihypharum that forms the basis of your MycoUp biostimulant product range. I understand that it has two important characteristics – it produces small enough spores that could work with drip irrigation and sporulates outside the root matrix, reducing the plant’s energy consumption needs. Can you expand on the importance of spore size and sporulation distance from root matrix? Glomus iranicum var. tenuihypharum has three key main characteristics: the production of abundant extramatrical mycelium, external sporulation of the root and tolerance to high concentrations of fertilizers or salts in the medium. Regarding the second characteristic, as you mentioned, our fungus generates small, individual spores, not in groups or clusters, of a size of 30 microns, and in addition, it effectively generates them outside the root. Therefore, as they are small spores and do not break the root continuity, the energy cost for the plant to maintain this relationship is much lower, resulting in a much more efficient symbiotic relationship that will benefit the plant or crop productive potential.
On the other hand, our product has a particle size of less than 100 microns, so it can be applied through irrigation systems without the need to remove the filters.
How do you think biotechnology helps farmers? We are in times of great challenges, not only for the farmer but also for the entire agri-food chain. For example, the scarcity of resources such as water or soil; or a new social and environmental demand that brings changes in consumption behaviour, or legislative changes to which agriculture must adapt by being more precise, sustainable and technological. This is where biotechnology becomes a great ally. Thanks to innovation, we can offer farmers efficient, sustainable and profitable biotechnological solutions. In the case of Symborg, we have a common goal with the farmer: to seek efficiency. To achieve more with less. Farmers are the first to be interested in making the most efficient use of natural resources without reducing their productivity or profitability.
Our solutions allow them to achieve benefits such as improved crop growth, quality and productivity, more efficient water use, optimized use of fertilizers, prevention of soil degradation, contribution to the capture of CO2 and therefore reducing greenhouse emissions, helping with pest control and diseases, etc. Besides, being biological products, they do not produce undesirable residues in plants, or alter the genetic characteristics of crops and harvests.
In February 2022, it was announced that Symborg had acquired Glen Biotech. What has this acquisition brought to your biocontrol portfolio? The acquisition of Glen Biotech responds to Symborg's commitment to continue investing in
biotechnology. Once again, we have listened to farmers. One of the main agronomic challenges is how to successfully cope with crop management in a context where there are fewer and fewer tools for pest and disease control. That's why at Symborg, we strengthened our product portfolio and opted for the incorporation of biocontrol solutions, which are so necessary for the farmer in the current context. Through Glen Biotech's technology, based on the fungus Beauveria bassiana 203, Symborg will develop new products that provide farmers with biological mechanisms for pest control. This step is aligned with international regulations, such as the European Union's Farm to Fork strategy.
Symborg had a trio of product launches in 2021 – biostimulant Balius, soil energizer Qlimax, and microbe-based TROOP Garden. TROOP Garden was aimed at home gardeners – is this a market you are looking to develop more? TROOP Garden has allowed us to bring all the knowledge and experience gained in agriculture to home gardening, through innovative solutions based on microorganisms. It is a way to offer the home gardening enthusiast a wide range of effective, sustainable and environmentally friendly products. Currently, TROOP Garden products can be found in garden centres throughout Spain, but it is expected to have an international reach and will soon be present in different countries around the world.
Symborg has been active in partnerships. Corteva Agriscience was a notable announcement in 2022, and they will distribute your nitrogen fixation product. Can you elaborate a little more on this agreement? What geographies does the Corteva agreement cover? The agreement with Corteva Agriscience for our biological nitrogen fixation product is an exclusive global distribution agreement that aims to quickly reach the largest number of farmers in the world, streamlining market access to a solution that is revolutionizing nitrogen fertilization worldwide. With this collaboration, Corteva will exclusively distribute the endophytic bacteria Methylobacterium symbioticum, patented by Symborg, under the brands BlueN or Utrisha N. By fixing nitrogen from the air and converting it for the plant, this technology provides an alternative and sustainable nitrogen source that reduces dependence on nitrogen uptake from the soil and ensures the plant has access to nitrogen throughout the season. This nitrogen management solution can help farmers maximize the yield potential of a wide range of crops. The optimization of the use of nitrogen in agricultural management is one of the great challenges of current agriculture and this biotechnology is, undoubtedly, part of the solution. We want as many farmers in the world as possible to benefit from this disruptive innovation.
What are Symborg's plans for the future? We envision Symborg’s future through three main areas, solving the challenges of farmers and leading the transformation of the agri-food model. The first focus remains the same as when we founded the company: to work close to the farmers – listening to them, understanding their needs, and converting them into effective, profitable and sustainable solutions. The second focus is sustainability, combining biotechnology with digitalization for better use of resources. In this way, we will continue to increase efficiency and reduce environmental impact, such as greenhouse gases, nutrient leaching, pest and disease resistance, and residues on fruits and vegetables, among others. We also envision the future of agriculture with research tools such as computational biology, which will allow us to process a lot of information and have a more profound knowledge of agro systems. And the third focus is on the development of new innovative products focused on the areas of biostimulation, biofertilization and biocontrol. Biostimulants to make crops more productive and capable of offering their maximum potential under stressful conditions, using new microorganisms and biomolecules. Biofertilizers to improve fertilizer use and plant nutrition while maintaining soil health. And biocontrol, with biological solutions based on microorganisms and biomolecules that are effective in controlling pests and diseases, assisting the management of anti-resistance strategies, and all without producing waste. ●
Symborg headquarters, Spain
We are in times of great challenges, not only for the farmer but also for the entire agri-food chain.
