2013 Overview of the European Biostimulants Market (Part 1)

By CnAgri Print Collecting economic data on the biostimulants sector is challenging at this stage. The sector is still emerging and being defined. The very lack of a regulatory framework therefore makes it difficult to collect reliable statistics as the definition of biostimulant products currently varies from one country to another, if there is even official recognition of the product category. It is a classic chicken-and-egg situation.

In addition, the European Biostimulants Industry Council (EBIC), formed less than two years ago is focused on regulatory and technical affairs. Developing a robust statistical methodology is not part of EBIC’s mandate today.

Nonetheless, given the growing interest in the biostimulants sector and EBIC’s rapid expansion (from 10 members in June 2011 to almost 35 today), it seemed appropriate to try to obtain a clearer picture of the economic picture for the sector today.

Methodology: EBIC circulated a questionnaire to its members in early 2013. This data was married with information compiled at the end of 2011 to try to build the most complete picture possible. At this stage, the data are qualitative rather than statistical, so all of the figures reported below should be taken as indicative. They provide a useful, if incomplete, picture of how the biostimulants sector is shaping up.

Table 1: some of the crops to which biostimulants are currently applied in Europe

The biostimulants market is growing quickly, driven by economic and socio-political factors

 Information provided by respondents to EBIC’s informal survey indicates that more than 6.2 million hectares are treated with biostimulants in Europe (defined as the European Economic Area) every year. This is higher than the total in 2011, but could be due to either the broader coverage of this survey (EBIC has more than twice as many members today) or market growth. As in 2011, the responding companies only account for a portion of the entire market, so the total area is likely to be much higher. At the same time, multiple applications to the same hectare are counted separately in these figures, and the responses from EBIC members suggest that about half of this area is due to repeated applications, so we can estimate that biostimulants are applied to at least 3 million hectares in Europe today.

Based on the submissions received by EBIC in 2011, the market is growing steadily at 10% or more per year1, with future growth predicted at the same levels for the foreseeable future.

Another sign of market growth is the number of new users. We asked respondents to indicate how many of their recently acquired farmer customers are new users of biostimulants. Roughly half appear to be using biostimulants for the first time. Other customers may be switching from another supplier, but many are also expanding their use of biostimulants (in terms of area treated, range of products and/or types of crops being treated). Because biostimulants have not been widely used in the past, many growers adopt them on a trial basis on a limited area for one or two seasons before scaling up their use. Growth rates between customer numbers and area treated/sales are therefore not related in a linear fashion.

The factors driving this continued growth are multiple:

1. Biostimulant use is spreading from some pioneer countries to a wider number, both within Europe and the rest of the world. Related to this, biostimulants companies are expanding their professional networks and connecting with new global distributors who are helping them tap previously inaccessible markets.

2. The biostimulants sector has developed new innovative products targetting specific agronomic needs, thus attracting new customers.

3. Biostimulant products were initially used primarily in organic production and on high-value fruit and vegetable crops. They are increasingly being introduced in conventional crop production to respond to economic and sustainability imperatives.

4. Recent high and volatile prices for inputs like fertilisers have created incentives for farmers to optimise the efficiency of input use.

5. In response to consumer demands for healthy food products with minimal environmental impacts (and related policies) growers are looking for ways to use synthetic chemicals and mineral fertilisers more efficiently and effectively. Biostimulants are therefore increasingly seen as a way to improve the return on their investment in other inputs and as a way to respond to consumer demands for “softer” agricultural practices.

The report for the global market size of the biostimulants is available.