What To Know About Rovensa Next — A New Company for a New World
October 3, 2023 There’s a new player in providing biorational solutions for growers around the world, and they’re making a big splash. Rovensa Next is the new global business unit of Rovensa Group, which is dedicated to supporting farmers in their journey to feed the planet sustainably.
The North American launch of Rovensa Next will take place at the annual meeting of the California Association of Pest Control Advisers (CAPCA) Oct. 15-17, in Reno, NV. CAPCA appears to be a natural place for such a launch, as earlier this year, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation rolled out “Sustainable Pest Management: A Roadmap for California.”
The plan calls for wholesale change to basically chemical-free pest management by 2050. With the state so dominant in the U.S. production of fruits and vegetables, it’s expected the approach will gradually spread across the country.
Rovensa Next is ready, says Riley Reynolds, Sales Manager – North America, of ORO AGRI, Inc., currently the lone U.S. company part of Rovensa Next. “Our goal is to be the largest biosolution provider in North America,” he says flatly, and it certainly appears the horsepower is there.
Rovensa Next, which is headquartered in Madrid, Spain, has a global network of 14 production plants and sales in more than 80 countries. It anticipates sales of 1 billion Euros by 2025. One of the plants is in the U.S., ORO AGRI, which is in Fresno, CA. “The only one in the U.S. – for now,” Reynolds hastily adds.
Initially there will be both Oro Agri and Rovensa Next products in the distribution channel. When existing Oro Agri product inventory is depleted all product packaging will carry the Rovensa Next branding.
Rovensa Next has a wide portfolio of biocontrol, biostimulants, bionutrition, adjuvants, and corrector products developed out of the technical expertise and local know-how of their teams, as well as extensive R&D, to meet growers’ needs. Globally, it offers 300 products, with 30 currently available in the U.S. Rovensa Next will be introducing three to five new products every year for U.S. fruit and vegetable growers for the foreseeable future, he says.
“We don’t have every solution for American growers yet,” says Reynolds with a chuckle, “but we’ll bring more solutions to the table for fruit and vegetable growers each year.”
For example, a lot of fruit and vegetable growers like the ORO AGRI product, NANOCAL , he says. They can expect to see similar products that will control the stress of the plant, what Reynolds calls “complete game-changers.”
“We’re not going to bring in products that aren’t good enough to compete or aren’t competitive pricewise on the U.S. market,” he says. “We want products that will differentiate so we don’t have to compete in the areas that are already saturated. For example, dry fertilizers. We don’t have the mines here. But abiotic stressors? That’s where we really shine.”
Reynolds believes Rovensa Next really has an edge in situations involving intense chemical resistance. They intend to bring in pesticides for which insects and diseases cannot develop resistance.
“That is one of our strengths,” he says. “For example, mites have developed resistance to Abamectin products. We have a product, a contact – plants can’t develop resistance to a contact pesticide. With all these conventional pesticides out there battling in the same space, lot of resistance is being developed. We are focused on selling biopesticides that don’t have resistance.”
Reynolds notes biological products also have the advantage that they can be brought onto the market at a much lower cost than new chemical products. The relative cost to develop a new synthetic product is now estimated at $300 million, so it’s no wonder there is just one new product or two approved each year. About 20 to 30 promising new biological products are being developed annually.
Rovensa Next, because of the firepower provided by 3,000 employees in more than 80 countries – plus more than 850 technical field experts – is poised to provide for the needs of growers. In part because of the move toward more biologically oriented farming systems, growers will often need more than one single product to solve an agronomic problem, Reynolds says.
Rovensa Next has solutions from 10 companies and counting, all focused on providing a holistic biorational solutions portfolio. “Biorational” include biopesticides as well as non-pesticide products such as, but not limited to, those used for crop stress management, enhanced plant physiology benefits, root growth management, post-harvest treatments, or as an alternative to pesticides.
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