Biological Product Groups in Ag Sector Survive and Thrive During the Pandemic

By Daniel Jacobs|October 12, 2021

AgriBusiness Global, a sister brand of American Fruit Grower and Western Fruit Grower, reached out to a pair of biological product associations to learn how they and their member companies have managed pandemic-related disruptions.

“When things were at their worst, some operations had to be curtailed or even suspended,” Keith Jones, Executive Director of the Biological Products Industry Alliance (BPIA), says. “As things continue to open, our members are gradually ramping up activity. The biggest impact for BPIA was not being able to bring people together in-person the way we like to so that they can network. We adapted like everyone else.”

Much of what has been adopted during the pandemic will continue. At BPIA, for example, even as there will be a return to in-person events, the virtual meeting won’t go away completely.

“Last year we started holding free member-only webinars,” Jones says. “Those webinars have been so well received by our members that we plan to continue them even after we go back to in-person meetings. This year we started having virtual Capitol Hill Days. In the past, we would ask our members to come to Washington, DC, sever-al times a year for these meetings. We have seen greater participation in these virtual ‘fly-ins’ because folks don’t need to fly in to take part, so we may continue these also. We even made our annual meeting, which is our biggest event of the year, into a completely virtual program. It was a great success with the most participants we ever had. Nevertheless, we are excited to announce that the BPIA 2022 Annual Meeting will be in-person in Monterey, CA, on May 17-18, 2022. Registration is already open.”

As businesses begin to return to and adjust to the new normal, they’ll have a chance to assess how deeply they were affected by the pandemic. In one sense, it might actually help the industry.