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Down Mexico Way

May 31, 2025
Mexico tour

Down Mexico Way

Mexico. You’re probably thinking about the unique food, characterful tequilas and the distinctive tunes of the Mariachi.

But while FertiGlobal’s Josefina Mackern enjoyed all these Mexican delights during her distributor support visit, it was the country’s diverse and extensive agriculture that brought her there.

As FertiGlobal’s head of technical development for the LATAM region, Josefina says it’s vital to get out in the country and – in typical FertiGlobal fashion – have ‘boots on the ground’.

“Mexico is a nation with enormous agricultural potential,” Josefina says. “Agriculture is an important economic sector for the country, and many farmers display a strong eagerness to adopt new technologies.

“For FertiGlobal, that attitude and interest make it an exciting market for innovation and growth.”

There’s great diversity in Mexican agriculture. Crops are the most important sector, contributing around half of all agricultural output. Corn, sugar cane, wheat, barley, tomatoes, bananas, citrus, mangoes, soft fruits, and coffee are among the most widely grown crops, annual outputs being sufficient to make it a top five or top ten producer for many categories.

For tomatoes and avocados, however, Mexico ranks as the world’s largest exporter. Next time you’re buying avocados at the grocery store or supermarket, check out where they were grown. There’s a good chance they’ll have been grown in Mexico.

Josefina’s two-week stay in Mexico first saw her supporting Koprimo, FertiGlobal’s longest-standing client in Mexico. Active across multiple sectors in the Mexican economy, from agriculture to automotive, and construction to mining, the company’s built an enviable reputation over its 45-year history – primarily for its socially responsible outlook.

“It’s no surprise that we saw them as an ideal partner for Mexico,” explains Josefina. “They recognise the agricultural industry’s responsibility to humans and the environment. FertiGlobal’s philosophy, as encompassed by our Four Pillars and the constant pursuit of sustainable farming, is a perfect match.”

Top of the list was attending Expo Agroalimentaria Guanajuato, a four-day show attracting professionals in the agricultural formulation and crop protection industries. It was a marvellous opportunity to engage with a wide cross-section of Mexican agriculture, meeting potential clients and discussing how FertiGlobal’s innovative technologies can provide the solution to many of their most intractable challenges.

“It’s the second time we’ve participated in the Expo,” notes Josefina, “and it really gives the most valuable, accessible way of connecting with key industry players, while spending time with the knowledgeable and enthusiastic Koprimo team – Héctor Ginez, Víctor Hugo Rodulfo, and Julio César Simiano.”

But valuable though these events are, there’s nothing like getting out in the field to see how FertiGlobal products are performing on-farm. Hand-in-hand with this is the ever-important need to see how growers respond to the FertiGlobal philosophy, and providing technical and commercial support to our distributors.

All this Josefina found with a trip to the San Quintín Valley. Located in Baja California, some 300km south of Tijuana, this is an area renowned for intensive agricultural production, growing everything from tomatoes, berries and cotton to cereals and vegetables.

But intensive farming has taken its inevitable toll – growers report depleted soils, and it’s recognised as an area on the ‘front line’ of climate change: altered rainfall patterns have increased the need for irrigation, leading to worries about groundwater depletion and desertification.

“Farmers are looking for products that can help them mitigate the effects of climate change on their crops, such as abiotic stress, while vitalizing plants with healthier and stronger growth, fighting disease without the need for harsh agrochemicals,” explains Josefina.

Mastranto is FertiGlobal’s new distributor for the northwest coast in Mexico. They sell to farmers through La Yunta stores; Josefina spent her first day in San Quintín in a technical training session.

“Mastranto received their first FertiGlobal products in December 2024, so we were very keen to prepare the team to understand their technical performance, how to deploy products to allow farmers to best solve their challenges, and to answer as many questions as possible.”

EnNuVi Technology has generated the most interest with Mastranto – Mantus, Laran and Lasa in particular – with FOLIFLO and FOLIMAC alongside, so Josefina’s next step was to see how these would go into action with producers. Tomatoes and strawberries are the prime targets for Mastranto with these products.

“Of course, no visit to Mexico would be complete without a study of the nation’s vineyards – it’s great that so many of our products have strong use cases in grapes and vines,” Josefina points out.

“The San Quíntin Valley is one of Mexico’s leading wine regions,” she says, “so it’s very exciting that we have producers, such as Dubucano and La Cetto, who look at FertiGlobal’s products and see solutions that could be right for them.”

Josefina says she’s looking forward to growing FertiGlobal in Mexico with help from such supportive and enthusiastic distributors.

“We’re poised to develop and explore a vast sea of opportunities in this expansive country. I feel confident about how the FertiGlobal philosophy of Total Crop Management is understood and appreciated here, and excited by its potential with such a vibrant, significant agricultural producer.”

News

The Apples of Kashmir

October 28, 2024
Indian market

The Apples of Kashmir

It’s known as ‘the fruit bowl of India’ for good reason. Here in Jammu and Kashmir, in the northernmost region of the Indian subcontinent, horticulture contributes nearly 10 per cent to the state’s GDP.

Fertile soils combine with a variety of climate conditions to favour a diverse crop of fruits, vegetables, spices and flowers. Citrus, pomegranates, lychees, almonds, tulips, walnuts and even high-value saffron are the bounty of the region’s farmers.

But it’s apples that are the undisputed leader, for it’s here that more than 75% of India’s apples are grown. Yet despite the crop’s value, farmers are not without their challenges – disease, climate change and various economic hurdles among them.

It’s for this reason that FertiGlobal has chosen Kashmir for the launch of our Apple Crop Management Program (ACMP). We’ve talked in previous articles about how our ‘boots on the ground’ philosophy pays dividends: being out in the field regularly, seeing those end-user challenges first-hand, gives us our own reality check. And it’s from these regular visits conducted by our Global Business Development Manager, Claus Brakemeier, that we’ve come to appreciate the real appetite amongst Indian farmers for new technologies that can deliver better crop quality and production.

“Farmers want to understand how they can deploy new methods and techniques, particularly with regard to nutrition, to help them upscale productivity,” says Dr Rajesh Kumar Sharma, FertiGlobal’s Technical Manager in India.

“They’re looking for safer ways to manage their crop. The currently accepted crop management schedule is pesticide intensive, which not only poses environmental hazards but can also lower product quality,” Dr Sharma points out.

Farmers’ reliance on crop inputs has been highlighted by the region’s politicians, with one recently expressing concerns over the sale of unapproved or even fake fertilisers and pesticides. Farmers using these have suffered crop losses and soil degradation.

“The fact remains that India holds the world’s second-largest area of apple production, yet is ranked fifth globally in productivity: 7.5Mt/ha versus a world average of 15.5Mt/ha,” says Claus Brakemeier.

“India has fair scope to improve its apple productivity, given that the world’s best figures are at 44Mt/ha and 40.1Mt/ha, for France and Italy respectively.

“The secret lies in stress mitigation and stage-specific apple nutrition, with a focus on calcium and magnesium,” he continues, “and it’s this that forms the basis of the Apple Crop Management Program.”

At the heart of ACMP lies EnNuVi Technology-based products such as Mantus and Cautha. These products embody EnNuVi’s bioactivating Technology, with its unique ability to trigger and control crops’ defence and resistance mechanisms.

By turning on and off certain plant genes, EnNuVi Technlogy offers a robust stress mitigation strategy. Prevention being better than cure, crops treated in this manner are strong enough to defend themselves against pathogenic attack, removing or reducing the need for chemical intervention.

The launch of the Apple Crop Management Plan follows earlier visits to the region by Mr Brakemeier, and the completion of a FertiGlobal-sponsored study, “Biotic Stress Management under Agro Climatic conditions of North-Western Himalayas of Kashmir (India)”, conducted by Sher-e Kashmir University of Agriculture, Science and Technology, Shalimar (Srinagar) (SKAUST-K).

It builds directly on insights shared by Kashmir’s apple growers as well as SCL Commercial India, which represents FertiGlobal in India. ACMP links FertiGlobal’s research-based Technologies to the support that farmers need, as more than 300 progressive farmers and agri-input traders were told at an invitation-only event to mark the launch of ACMP.

Delivering his inaugural speech, the Chief Guest Dr Nazir Ahmad Ganai (Honourable Vice Chancellor, SKAUST-K), welcomed the presence of FertiGlobal and Mr Brakemeier in the region. In particular, he called out the ‘overwhelming impacts’ of abiotic stresses on the growth and productivity of crops, noting that they in turn posed a threat of the biotic stresses of fungi, bacteria and viruses. Together, this combination could ‘develop constraints to food security worldwide’.

Continuing, Dr Ganai expressed his delight at the partnership between SKAUST-K and FertiGlobal, hailing the exchange of ideas, discussions among experts, and the import of ‘world-class technologies’ that would help address the challenges and identify the opportunities in sustainable, quality apple production.

Dr Rifat Bhat, SKAUST-K’s Project Leader for the FertiGlobal partnership, shared her own experiences and observations of FertiGlobal Technologies in the research project. She explained how the concept of stress mitigation is holding up favourably in the field, producing consistent results. She also shared her opinion on how FertiGlobal products were influencing key metrics, including crop vigour and apple quality, notably colour, shape and size.

“This was a unique event bringing together the scientific community, distribution partners, progressive farmers and, importantly, the local media that’s key to knowledge transfer and mobilisation,” concludes Dr Sharma.

“The event emphasised the need for advanced nutrition technologies and how FertiGlobal, through combining scientific endeavour and commercial wisdom, is becoming a valued partner to Kashmir apple growers in their pursuit of improved apple crop productivity.”

Dr. Rajesh Sharma (at the right side), together with mr. Tanveer, Country Manager SCL India (in the middle), and mr. Deepak, Sales Manager SCL India (at the left side)
News

Time for Navel-raising

August 22, 2024
FertiGlobal Crop Management Program in California

Time for Navel-raising

Total Crop Management is the FertiGlobal approach: the acknowledgement that a crop that wants for nothing is a healthy crop. And without a limiting factor, a healthy crop can put all its energy into yield.

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when talking about ‘teamwork’?

Your first thought is probably along the lines of ‘interaction between colleagues’, or ‘collaboration’, or ‘working towards a common goal’. And you wouldn’t be wrong.

But why can’t we have teamwork between products, too?

That’s often the thinking that guides FertiGlobal’s research and development team. Most recently, they’ve put it into action with a Total Crop Management programme that focuses on the Navel orange.

Navel oranges – generally considered ‘eating oranges’ – are one of the world’s most popular citrus fruits, with around 50 different varieties. Originally discovered as a mutation in Brazil, in 1820, the fruit really is named after its similarity to a navel: a genetic mutation causes a small secondary fruit to grow within the main fruit, causing a characteristic hole at the blossom-stem end. Fortuitously, the same mutation also makes the fruit seedless, adding to its appeal.

First introduced into California in the 1870s, the popularity of the Navel orange grew and grew. Today, as one of the world’s preferred varieties of orange, it’s cultivated on every continent. But California remains its powerhouse location. According to California Citrus Mutual, the sector’s representative body, nearly half of the state’s total citrus area – 111,000 acres – is planted with Navel oranges.

Into this dynamic sector comes FertiGlobal, with its Total Crop Management approach. We were approached by an independent research organisation to conduct trials with three FertiGlobal products, in a bid to see how our innovative and unique technologies could boost three vital metrics associated with citrus-growing success.

  • Fruit Set: Citrus bloom is profuse. The average adult tree can produce up to 200,000 flowers a year. Clearly no tree can maintain and develop that many fruits; only around 1-5% of flowers will lead to harvestable fruits. But it’s important to optimise that number.
  • Fruit Size: Most growers will see this as the most important factor for maximising returns. It comes down to consumer preference: smaller fruits (below 65mm) are more difficult to sell than large fruit (above 72mm).
    What’s more, crop load – the number of fruit set – is inversely related to fruit size.
  • Yield: No explanation needed. Whatever crop they’re growing, every grower wants to get the best yields.

The researchers combined three of FertiGlobal’s key technologies, focusing the intended effects on delivering a healthier crop with increased yield and higher quality:

  • EnNuVi combines nutrients with bioactive polyphenols (nutrient polyphenolic molecule), going beyond nutrition to provide both a physical barrier and bioactive plant defences together letting the plant use the energy for more production and better fruit quality. Semia was the chosen product.
  • Foliarel uses boron to boost the effects of plant nutrients, as well as focusing specifically on flower fertility and pollen viability, ensuring high fruit set. Here, OK was proposed.
  • Foliflo features microparticle nutrition: a suspension of <10µm and <20µm, they’re optimised for plant uptake while assuring growers of very low phytotoxicity. For the trials, Nixi was applied.

   

“We had fantastic results with your program.”

That was the feedback from Sawtooth Ag Research, a leading agricultural research company based in California, following a 2022 trial. The company seeks out innovative crop production solutions, conducting field trials and experiments through collaborations with farmers and other industry partners.

FertiGlobal’s products were of particular interest: Sawtooth focuses on sustainability and efficiency, in a bid to optimise crop yields and quality.

The results speak for themselves. On a crop of Navel, cv Thompson Improved, just look at the specific metrics:

Weight: Semia/OK/Nixi programme

FertiGlobal trial orange - weight

Bins: Semia/OK/Nixi programme

Grower return: Semia/OK/Nixi programme

These results followed applications of the three ‘teamwork’ products at the following timings and rates:

  • Solo application of Semia: petal fall (13.7fl oz/acre, 1l/ha)
  • Tank-mixed application of OK (0.45lbs/acre, 0.5kg/ha) + Nixi (20.5fl oz/ac, 1kg/ha) at 30 and 60 days following Semia
  • Solo application of OK every 30 days (0.9lbs/ac, 1kg/ha)

We were delighted, not only to have such reassuring results but also with the very positive feedback from an independent research outfit. It’s further encouragement to our team that their ambitions to support plant health and productivity are, literally, bearing fruit.

For more information about finding the right Total Crop Management approach for your crop, don’t hesitate to get in touch – either with your local FertiGlobal distributor, or here through the website.

News

Why simple works

May 27, 2024
Report from global tour

Why simple works

Africa was the focus of our last blog, when FertiGlobal’s Business Development Manager Claus Brakemeier explained how our partners are crucial to the success of our products. In this second part of our Africa focus, we’re taking a closer look at the products finding favour with Africa’s farmers.

How do you launch products in a country where the farmers, without exception, are unaware of the FertiGlobal brand and its speciality crop input portfolio?

In fact, it’s not just the FertiGlobal portfolio of which they have little awareness. Farmers in our three ‘market entry’ countries – Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa – have little awareness of any speciality products, because they’re not using them. Compared with Europe, or Latin America, there’s very little market penetration of this crop input category in southern Africa.

At first glance, that might appear to make any kind of market entry an uphill struggle. But that’s exactly why we’ve been very careful to select the right products to make the right introduction.

No matter where they are in the world, farmers are understandably cautious about the claims attached to novel products and new categories. As the saying goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression; in farming, that translates to ‘you only get one chance to make the right decision’.

A product’s failure ‘to do what it says on the tin’ not only destroys trust in a category, but also directly affects a grower’s bottom line. At best it’s an unrealised return on investment; at worse, a potentially serious loss of yield.

That’s why FertiGlobal evidences all its product claims with full trial data. Farmers need this vital reassurance to give them full confidence in the provenance and performance of every product they choose to use on their crops.

Many farmers in this region already recognise that their crops are falling short of their yield potential, and that crops have yet to reach European standards of productivity. In many ways they’re hampered, though, because distributors do not carry the specialist products, such as biostimulants, that European farmers are so enthusiastically adopting.

Growers will often admit themselves that there’s a need for better knowledge mobilisation, too. Their uncertainty about which products to use, and whether they’ll offer a good return on investment, further dissuades them from stepping outside their product comfort zone.

Against this background, we decided to keep things simple. That’s why we’re blazing a trail into this region with just four key products: Mantus, Dinamico, Colore and OK. Well-known, well-proven products, they have been the subject of repeated, extended, widespread trials in many different crops and countries. We know exactly what they can do.

Keeping it simple means using these four products to demonstrate the concept and potential of FertiGlobal’s Total Crop Management approach, with a well-structured knowledge transfer programme run in partnership with Bancella. These four products also provide farmers with a comprehensive use case on the region’s key crops: tobacco, still of major economic importance in this region, vegetables, wheat, soybeans, blueberries, citrus, peas and potatoes.

In addition to Bancella’s role in helping FertiGlobal to secure registrations across the region, I’ve also been impressed by the enthusiasm shown by local agronomists and pest control advisers (PCAs). Brian Hayes, a well-respected and renowned PCA working with tobacco growers in Zimbabwe, has reported very positive results from his early trials with Mantus, one of our EnNuVi-enabled products. Here, a single application of Mantus at 1l/ha led to great result in fighting off Cercospora (frogeye).

Elsewhere in Zimbabwe, farmer Keith Butler is trialling OK on non-irrigated soybeans. While the crop has been under water stress, Keith reported that the area treated with OK – from our Foliarel technology range – has seen a marked improvement in plant development. We’re awaiting the harvest analysis to assess whether the visual cues extend to yield improvement too.

I can’t wait to share some further results from this region as we make progress in communicating the benefits of FertiGlobal’s Total Crop Management programmes to local farmers and their advisers. After all, this is an area with huge agricultural potential: its farmers just need the right tools and sufficient knowledge to help them realise it, sustainably and efficiently.

News

How FertiGlobal defines innovation through a new approach to crop protection

February 2, 2024
Biostimolanti in campo

A new approach to crop protection: how FertiGlobal defines innovation

Independent trials show the way

This leading Italian publication field-tested FertiGlobal’s products. Here’s what they found.

Established in 1945, L’Informatore Agrario is one of the most respected agricultural publications in Italy. Read weekly by more than 40,000 people, including breeders and technicians, farmers and agritech entrepreneurs, it’s come to be seen as one of the most qualified – and fiercely independent – sources of agronomic information available to the Italian crop production sector.

So, it’s not surprising that when the magazine launched an innovative new project – Biostimolanti in Campo (Biostimulants in the Field) – to help them understand the novel and exciting world of biostimulants, and how to incorporate them into their production systems, they attracted considerable support.

Not only is the project run in collaboration with the Centro Sperimentale Ortofloricolo Po di Tramontana di Veneto Agricoltura – the Venetian agency for innovation in the land-based industries – but it’s also garnered the backing of OP Isola Verde, a consortium of 19 businesses cultivating more than 280ha of greenhouse crops under organic and integrated crop management regimes.

And as if that’s not enough, the whole scheme’s scientific rigour is co-ordinated by four of Italy’s leading universities: Tuscia, Salerno, Naples and Padua. This project is about as independent as it can be.

“It’s that striking independence that attracted FertiGlobal to get involved in the project,” says Mohammed Mahboubi, Area Manager Mediterranean. “Biostimulants present a valuable and viable set of tools to help farmers improve the yield and quality of horticultural crops.

“With the EU’s Farm to Fork strategy encouraging a reduction in the use of agrochemicals and synthetic fertilisers, there’s a distinct role for biostimulants within farmers’ production strategies.”

Initially, the project covers just four crops: processing tomatoes, melons, zucchini (courgettes) and rocket.

“With the novel nature of many biostimulants, and the rapid R&D progress that FertiGlobal and others like us are achieving, there’s a real need for independent, farm-level research to help with practical knowledge transfer to improve usage and on-farm performance across a wide range of crops.

“Biostimolanti in Campo does just that. It’s a collaborative approach, bringing together not only the universities’ rigorous scientific overview and the expertise of the research centres, but also commercial diversity: it’s very promising that FertiGlobal is joined by other companies active in the biostimulant sector, to engage in this essential undertaking.”

Mohammed points out that the independent nature of the project allows evaluation of more than just the effect of biostimulants: it’s also about their economic convenience. “When manufacturers release information about margins and cost-benefit ratios, it can sometimes be perceived as biased, but through Biostimolanti in Campo we can demonstrate an impartial economic assessment.”

Processing tomatoes were one of the crops for which FertiGlobal supplied three products for the 2023 trials programme: ALPAN, CAUTHA and CREO.

ALPAN, a concentrated suspension of Mg and bioactive polyphenols, was developed to improve the translocation of photo assimilates – the products of photosynthesis – to promote root growth and increase sugar production. It also serves to bolster plants’ natural defence mechanisms and offers some protection against drought stress.

CAUTHA comprises a similar set of bioactive polyphenols, this time co-formulated with Ca. Reducing the effect of biotic and abiotic stress on plants, it maintains chlorophyll levels and helps the crop accumulate valuable osmo-protective molecules.

CREO is a foliar fertiliser fortified with L-methionine. The addition of this important amino acid serves to improve the uniformity of fruit ripening and increases Brix.

A programme comprising all three products was devised by the independent trials team:

 

Weeks since transplanting Crop growth stage Product applied Rate Water volume
7 Fruit growth commencing CAUTHA 2L/ha 1000L/ha
8 CAUTHA 2L/ha 1000L/ha
9 Fruit growth complete CAUTHA+ALPAN 2L/ha 1000L/ha
10 ALPAN 2L/ha 1000L/ha
11 Beginning to mature CREO 3L/ha 1000L/ha
12 30% fruit mature CREO 3L/ha 1000L/ha
13      

“We were very pleased with the results,” Mohammed enthuses. “The FertiGlobal protocol delivered a 17.6t/ha increase over the farmer standard practice. At prices in place at the time, that would add nearly €3,500/ha to a grower’s margin.

“But it wasn’t just quantity – yield – that improved; we saw some dramatic increases in quality too.”

Overall, fruit from treated plants displayed better vigour, and was more consistent – an important parameter for transport and processing. There was also a slight increase in

°Brix.

“This is but one trial”, says Mohammed, “albeit one carried out independently by well-regarded and prestigious organisations.

“However, it clearly shows the ability of well-developed, science-led biostimulants to improve not just profitability on-farm – that €3,500/ha increase comes from an investment of just €200/ha in input costs – but environmental performance too.

“One-fifth of the treated fruit was rejected, compared to one-quarter from the control plots. We know we have a problem with food waste, but efforts to reduce it begin at the farm, way before it reaches the fork.

“We look forward to continuing to work with L’Informatore Agrario on Biostimolanti in Campo,” Mohammed concludes. “There’s work still to be done: to progress further with the on-farm knowledge transfer, yes, but also in the exciting direction of seeing how biostimulants and innovative solutions can be used to reduce both plant protection products input and irrigation demands while maintaining production output and efficiency.

“Biostimulants, bioactivators and innovative nutritive solutions really are the new frontier for crop production.”

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