AgriBusiness Global Provides Insider Information for Trade Summit Attendees

Renee Targos By Renee Targos|9 August 2024

How do you survive a tough year and possibly another in the global agribusiness market? Get good intel.

AgriBusiness Global℠ Trade Summit speakers discussed industry challenges in a swirl of business deals being done among more than 800 attendees and 118 exhibitors at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, Fla., on August 7-8.

Derek Oliphant, Partner for AgbioInvestor, kicked off day one sessions with his analysis of the global crop protection market. He analyzed industry struggles and suggested while oversupply is often pointed to as the culprit, there are other factors at work in the market.

“Commodity prices are low,” says Oliphant. “Agrochemical costs have come down in 2024, but farmers have high prices in energy. Farmers are in financial difficulty, which affects their spending on crop protection.”

Oliphant said another trend this last year is how generics outperformed new formulations, which hurt multinationals.

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Abhijit Bose, Chief Marketing Officer for Tagros, explored another challenge for the crop protection industry, which is increased shipping prices. In his presentation “Indian Agro Chemical Industry: Learning a Way Forward After a Challenging Year,” Bose explored the difficulties in shipping products to other countries due to inconsistent shipping services and jumps in prices. He also discussed hurdles many Indian companies experienced in 2023 and 2024 with an oversaturated market and how many companies are responding by diversifying services, especially in research and development and biologicals.

Other presenters included CS Liew, Managing Director for Pacific AgriScience, who interviewed both Bob Trogele, Owner of Trogele Energy and Consultancy, LLC., and Steve Pearce, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Chemovateq Swiss AG Investments, on AgriBusiness Global Live LinkedIn broadcasts.

Trogele also participated in a Q&A about black swans for 2024 and what to look for when acquiring biological companies.

The China Update panel featured David Li, Marketing Director for SPM Biosciences; Kevin Li, General Manager of Fuhua Crop Protection Division, Sichuan Leshan Fuhua Tongda Agro-chemical Technology Co., Ltd; and Jeffrey Ma, Head of International Corporate Development and Legal and CEO, Maxunitech North America, Inc. and Maxunitech Do Brasil LTDA Maxunitech, Inc. The panelists shed some light on new strategies Chinese companies are taking to deal with oversupply in the market.

Renee Targos, as Editor of AgriBusiness GlobalTM Direct magazine, leads in content development, event programming, and managing the ABG Board of Advisors and strategic growth of the magazine. Renee’s professional experience covers more than two decades of national and international digital and print content development, editing, and journalism. She received a bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University and continued her education with master’s level courses in business administration and behavioral analysis. Renee has served as a board member for several Arizona-based non-profits and government commissions. See all author stories here.

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