Rizobacter is one of the three biggest inoculant companies in the world. Today it is the top exporter of inoculants in Argentina and has 21% of the inoculants market worldwide, with an important growth tendency due to its decentralized offices. It has nine subsidiaries: France, Bolivia, India, Brazil, the USA, Paraguay, Colombia, Uruguay and South Africa, and through them it reaches presence in more than 35 countries. In the last 5 years it achieved the approval of 109 new registrations of biotechnologies to be commercialized in international markets. Inoculants for Rumania, Turkey and Ukraine; growth promoters for Canada and countries in Africa; and adjuvants for Bolivia, just to mention the most recent cases. After thirty years of its first export, today from the US$ 125 million of the company’s turnover, 40 million come from Foreign Trade. To picture this better, if in 10 years the general turnover grew 3.5 times, the foreign trade’s turnover grew 10 times in the same period. For the 18-19 campaign, Rizobacter foresees a turnover of a bit more than US$ 140 million, where the export unit will represent more than 20%. The plan is to reach US$ 80 million in the export business in the next three years. With this forecast and growth dynamics, the changes and investments necessary to respond to the market are numerous. Among them, the approval of its second on-site customs office stands out, a characteristic that very few companies can have. In addition to decentralizing its operations, it considerably speeds up the export processes, increases the operating capacity, reduces costs and risks of damage or breakage due to the handling of people external to the company, and it ensures the cold chain, when necessary. “Managing all operations from end to end allows us to negotiate better conditions with suppliers and to ensure the level of service expected. Apart from high-quality products, we sell services which spare the customer of formalities which could result unknown and complex”, ensures Rizobacter’s CEO, Ricardo Yapur. “Flexibility and good logistics are two aspects which were always highly valued by our national market. We want to do our best to maintain them at the international level as well. And the on-site customs office facilitates this a lot”, he states. Future challenges The growth possibilities of the industry of biological products are unbeatable. The market of biostimulants, biopesticides and biofertilizers is estimated to reach 11.3 billion dollars in 2022 with an annual growth scale of 14%. Rizobacter has a Model Plant to produce 200.000 daily doses of inoculants. In 2016 it invested 33 million dollars in the construction of Synertech Industries, a plant with the capacity to produce 50.000 tons of the microgranular fertilizer Microstar, from which it can supply from Argentina all the Southern Corn. With this soaring production capacity, the company’s decision will continue to focus on reaching new markets and deepening the existing ones. To this effect, it is in the process of applying for the certification as Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) to guarantee the intervening authorities that it is a reliable partner in the supply chain. Moreover, it is dealing with the process of opening numerous distribution centres in strategic locations to avoid delays in customers’ deliveries. The most advanced achievement is the opening of the regional centre located in Curitiba, Brazil.
