Bacteria and yeast processor Lallemand is expanding its reach in the crop care market in a “collaboration” with seed and crop input firm BrettYoung.
Montreal-based Lallemand, whose specialty business including ag-related products is headquartered in France, announced Thursday it will buy the intellectual property rights and “associated assets” for BrettYoung’s biological products portfolio, including its BioBoost line, for an undisclosed sum.
Under their agreement, Lallemand and BrettYoung will collaborate to extend the range of crop biological products BrettYoung distributes, using “new solutions” developed by Lallemand.
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BioBoost is a soil-active growth-promoting rhizobacteria (Delftia acidovorans) packaged in liquid form.
According to BrettYoung, the BioBoost bacteria colonize plants’ root zones to “positively impact” root growth. The bacteria can oxidize sulphur and may make the nutrient more plant-available, the company says.
According to BrettYoung, BioBoost Liquid, applied on canola as a post-emergent spray, has shown an average yield response of two bushels per acre in trials between 2007 and 2012. BioBoost Plus, for use by soybean growers, is applied on-seed and also includes Bradyrhizobium bacteria for nitrogen fixation.
Calvin Sonntag, CEO for family-owned, Winnipeg-based BrettYoung, said Thursday a “long-term partnership” with Lallemand “dramatically expands” the company’s ability to bring value to its customers.
“This partnership is an important step in bringing Lallemand’s exciting biostimulant and biofertilizer technologies already commercialized in Europe and South America, to North American producers,” Vince Myerly, Lallemand Plant Care’s general manager for North America, said in the same release.
“Our strains, production and stabilization expertise combines perfectly with BrettYoung’s product offering and excellent distribution network.”
Family-owned Lallemand, whose business expanded from baking yeast in 1923 into distillers’ and winemakers’ yeasts and products for human and animal nutrition and pharmaceutical use, has been active in plant care since 2007, when it set up Ithec, a joint venture in France, and bought Finland-based Verdera in 2008.
Its plant care business today includes fungal, bacterial and yeast biocontrol products, biofertilizers and biostimulants for use in forestry, agriculture, horticulture, turf and “consumer gardening.” — AGCanada.com Network
