Exclusive interview with CEO Eric van Innis
Please can you provide a little background on your career to date. Have you always been in Agriculture?
I’ve been in the agriculture business for over 30 years, but my career started in a very different sector. Right when I left university, in the early 80’s, I worked for the repairs and maintenance office of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits in Belgium, my home country. After that, I entered the agriculture business by joining Groupe Roullier, a multinational business specializing in plant nutrition. In the early nineties, I joined SAPEC, leading their agro sector, at the root of what is ROVENSA today.
Rovensa has been building a formidable stable of companies in recent years. Perhaps you can expand on the strategy behind this, and the objective of providing sustainable solutions for plant health and nutrition?
Rovensa has always looked for opportunities to contribute to a sustainable and well-balanced agriculture. Our expansion journey in plant protection and nutrition has started in the 2000’s with two acquisitions made in Spain: Agrides in crop protection, and Tradecorp in specialty nutrients. A few years later, our work and effort had put us in a comfortable financial position to increase our international growth and invest in our product portfolio development and regulatory processes. In 2014, we acquired OGT, an Irish seaweed company to expand our biostimulants offer. In 2017, backed by Bridgepoint’s capital, we continued our expansion with the acquisition of SDP, Idai Nature and Microquimica, allowing us to enter the adjuvant, biological and biofertilizer segments, strengthening our footprint in Europe – especially in France – and in Brazil. More recently, we have been making acquisitions in biocontrol: Agrichem, Grupo Agrotecnologia, and Oro Agri, which align perfectly with our vision. More recently, to expand our offer in bionutrition, we acquired Rodel Flowers in Ecuador, which allowed us to strengthen our footprint in the flower sector and in other important local crops. The combined regulatory and intellectual property skills of these Rovensa companies, together with their customer-oriented, technical go-to-market strategy, enable us to be a worldwide partner, providing sustainable solutions to meet the needs of local farmers. With agricultural solutions sold over 80 countries worldwide, our Group offers now a complementary portfolio of innovative solutions for plant health & care. From our more than 25 R&D Experimental Centers and Laboratories across the world, and our more than 800 field support professionals, we are working closely with farmers to help them to do more with fewer resources.
What is your vision for Rovensa in the coming years, and where do you plan to grow the company?
We are embedding sustainability in our business strategy. Our vision is to be a worldwide reference by providing innovative and sustainable solutions for plant health & care. We aim to contribute to a sustainable agriculture, that is both productive and regenerative. In the coming years, we intend to boost our nature-based solutions (bio solutions), which can allow an efficient use of natural resources exploitation (such as water, land, and nutrients) and have a positive impact on nature (soil health, biodiversity and carbon sequestration). We will continue to develop agricultural solutions which preserve and enhance soil and environmental health, guaranteeing safe and healthy food for all. We are developing more biological solutions based on natural extracts, microorganisms, and biodegradable products, giving back to nature what nature provides us.
We aim to offer an increasing complementary portfolio of low-risk solutions for plant health, such as natural, biological, and low or zero residue biocontrol solutions, as well as specialty crop nutrition, biostimulants, inoculants and adjuvants for plant’s growth and healthy development, enhancing quality and yield.
And at the heart of these plans is sustainability. Please elaborate on what that means at Rovensa – for example, I know you are using renewable energy to power some of your production plants.
Our sustainability journey has been going on for some time now, right when we defined the concept of Well Balanced Agriculture. We are aware that an increasing world population and the limited resources of the planet, alongside with climate change, demand a sustainable agriculture model. Our focus at this point is to create innovative solutions that help farmers produce more with less, ensuring healthy, safe and nutritious food for everyone. Of course, creating more sustainable solutions also involve having sustainable operations and implementing the best practices in our factories in terms of water, waste, and carbon emissions management, which is why we are, for example, investing in renewable energy to power our plants and one of our companies decided to only use PEFC certified pallets in its operations.
We are taking action towards a more sustainable future, and we are currently working on the development of our sustainability strategy, positioning ESG topics at the core of our business and reflecting on how our business can deliver long-term positive impact for all our stakeholders. Based on this strategy, we are working on the Group’s Net Zero roadmap which encompasses a reduction of our greenhouse gas emissions, and at the same time assume our accountability to support farmers to adopt the best solutions to improve plant and soil health, which will in turn improve its ability to sequester carbon.
At the moment, we are issuing our second annual ESG report to disclose with clarity and transparency the key performance indicators and initiatives that we implement across our Group to drive a positive impact on the planet.
Many Rovensa companies export to markets around the world – which markets are you looking to increase the company’s presence? (Such as the USA)
Our most recent acquisitions have enabled the Group’s entrance into new strategic markets such as the US, Oceania, and South Africa, also reinforcing our footprint in markets such as Brazil, India and China.
Biostimulants are obviously fundamental to Rovensa, in the form of Tradecorp, which has been a benchmark company for many years. How do you see Tradecorp’s role in the future of the biostimulants industry?
Climate change has become a priority problem that is influencing agricultural production worldwide, increasing stresses on crops. We are committed to help to increase global food production until 2050, contributing towards our mission of feeding the planet. Tradecorp is providing solutions to help growers to produce more with less inputs, providing produce according to consumers, retailers and food industry demand in terms of quality, quantity and sustainability. Our wide experience in research and development offers breakthrough solutions that enhance plant’s health and development, driving quality and yield. Tradecorp’s Biostimulation 360° programme has a huge range of Global Premium Biostimulants that offers sustainable and innovative solutions, targeting specific problems growers face at each stage of crop growth. It is the case of Biimore, the last addition and an Ultra-Efficient Biostimulant obtained from an exclusive and sustainable plant fermentation process considered to be a major breakthrough in biostimulants compared to other products on the market. ●
For more information, please contact: ROVENSA
Eric van Innis, CEO, Rovensa Group
Rovensa has always looked for opportunities to contribute to a sustainable and well-balanced agriculture
Jorge Aguilar, Tradecorp's Marketing Director, spoke to New AG International at the Biostimulants World Congress in Florida, sharing a view on the biostimulants market and Tradecorp's new product Biimore.
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