AlltecBio expands its operation to the soybean seed business in Argentina

(Photo: Alexis Buffoni, Commercial Manager at AlltecBio)

Buenos Aires, December 7th. The company, founded by Mr. Santiago Wirsch in 1988, is one of the leading suppliers of adjuvant and biofertilizers for the Argentine farming. But this year (2018) the company entered as partner of Santa Rosa Semillas, the third largest soybean genetic developer in the country.
“We found that we were able to enlarge our services to farmers, supplying them not only adjuvant or biofertilizers, but soybean seed too”, the Commercial Manager Alexis Buffoni explains in dialogue with www.eFarmNewsAr.com. “We started the relationship in the 2016/17 season selling the Santa Rosa seeds via our retail network; the results were too good and for the 2017/18 season we formalized the agreement, doubling the sales of certified seeds in the ‘non-partners’ Santa Rosa clients segment”, Mr. Buffoni adds.
Santa Rosa Semillas (SRS) was born early ’90, founded by more than 20 farm cooperatives placed in the central region of the Pampas, the most productive zone of the country. Most of selling was targeted to the partners of these cooperatives. Those farmers constitute the “partners” segment of the business. Now, the entering of AlltecBio to the business provides to SRS a large commercial network across the country.
“We have a 25 senior commercial agronomists network, from La Pampa in the South to Salta in the North, covering the technological needs of our clients. We had an excellent reception when we added the Santa Rosa soybean seed to our portfolio”, Buffoni says.
But the partnership between two companies are having a serious impact in the trend of the I+D pipeline of Santa Rosa. It is that farmers in the South of the country are demanding soybean seed from short groups (II large or III short) while farmers in the North ask for seed with Intacta technology. Thus, breeders of Santa Rosa are working against the clock to meet this demand.
Despite the formal entering of AlltecBio as shareholder of Santa Rosa, both companies exhibit a profitable and large relationship. In 2002, Mr. Wirsch founde Inquima, a adjuvant company in Brazil, then transformed in Group Inquima, which is the largest supplier of adjuvant in the largest Mercosur’s economy. In his trips to Brazil, Mr. Wirchs knew the operation of Santa Rosa, and both decided to create a joint venture to supply soybean genetic to Brazilian farmers, named Intellicrops.
Currently, Mr. Buffoni is very excited with de synergy between products in his new portfolio. “Our goal is to duplicate the sales of seeds to cooperative partners and non-partners in the 2019/20 season. I’m confident we can reach it. And we expanding our operation to new markets like Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador, adding to our currently operation in the Mercosur countries”, he tell to www.eFarmNewsAr.com.
Also, this year AlltecBio inaugurated its new formulation plant and headquarters in Puerto Tirol, in the Northern Province of Chaco. The company counts with four logistical hubs in the key points of the country: Buenos Aires (in the South), Cordoba (in the Central region) and Tucumán, for covering the North supplying, furthermore of the Chaco warehouses.
As Mr. Buffoni says, AlltecBio ranks in the fourth place as adjuvant supplier in Argentina, with total sales around 400,000 liters per years, covering 2 million hectares of farming.