Colombia is a key country for the American multinational Gowan. It has been since 2019, after the purchase of the local company EcoFlora® Agro SAS. Since then, it began to combine EcoFlora's capabilities in developing biorationals products with Gowan's more than 50 years of experience in registration coordination, development, marketing and sales to provide solutions for integrated pest and disease management worldwide.
Five years later, Gowan takes a new step in the country with the inauguration in the Free Zone of Rionegro, Antioquia, of what would be the largest bioinsumers extraction and formulation plant in the country.
José Joaquín Vieda, general manager of Gowan Colombia, explains that this plant will be the cluster for biorationals products that are consumed in more than 80 countries where the company operates, and that it could lead the country to be a world reference in the manufacture of bioinputs based on botanical extracts. "I believe we will be the most important players in the world in this segment," he says.
And with this new 4,000 m2 plant, the company marks an important milestone in its commitment to sustainable development and agricultural innovation in a world of constantly changing consumer demand and requirements. In the modern bioinputs factory, 120 direct jobs and another 300 indirect jobs have been generated.
New Gowan Colombia plant in Rionegro, Antioquia.
"Gowan is a company that, through investment in research, its analytical and observational capabilities, and it's great human talent, has immense possibilities to set the pace in biorationals worldwide," To get this new plant up and running, Vieda estimates that Gowan has invested $5 million in the production process alone, which meets the highest production standards. To this, we must add another almost $3 million for research and development, in order to design and manufacture innovative solutions that protect crops, promote soil health and contribute to global food security.
EcoSwing, CapsiAlil®, L'Ecomix, EcoAZ and SinBabosas, five products that are manufactured in the state-of-the-art plant
In this context of strategic investment, the products EcoSwing, CapsiAlil®, L'Ecomix, EcoAZ and SinBabosas - five biopesticides manufactured at Gowan's modern plant in Colombia - are currently in production, Vieda points out. In addition, they plan to produce other fungicides, insecticides and nematicides; all based on botanical extracts. These will be their main focus, but without ruling out the possibility of producing other products. They soon expect to start the production of ProSwing, thanks to the identification of secondary metabolites in the plant. Swinglea glutinosa.
Swinglea glutinosa
About the natural fungicide EcoSwing, one of its star products, the executive highlights that it is derived from the plant extract of the rutaceous species, Swinglea glutinosa, which emerged from a long embryonic development process from 2005 to the present, becoming one of the main biofungicides on the market.
Its introduction to the national agricultural market occurred with the first registration in ornamental roses in 2007 and, subsequently, it was registered in other countries of the Andean region such as Peru and Ecuador.
"EcoSwing is a 100% Colombian development that represents an innovation in crop protection with its preventive and curative action," says Vieda, about an innovative technology that has been awarded the most recognized awards in the sector.
Thus, for example, in the United Kingdom it obtained the 'Global Pesticide Awards 2019', during the Biopesticides Summit, where it was cataloged as the best new bio fungicide in the world. In addition, during the Annual Meeting of the Biocontrol Industry, held in Basel, Switzerland, it obtained the Bernard Blum - IBAM award, as one of the best biofungicides on the planet.
EcoSwing, consolidated in the ornamental rose sector
Thanks to this, EcoSwing quickly consolidated as an option for the management of Botrytis cinerea and powdery mildew, in the ornamental rose crop. The combination of its various mechanisms of action has positioned it among rotation programs with chemical fungicides, offering high standards of efficacy and selectivity.
Even, according to the company, in the control of Botrytis, the product has a fully proven efficacy within management programs where it can be applied consecutively in the presence of the first symptoms of the disease at low doses (1.5 cc/L), effectively controlling severity in the field.
In line with this, Gowan highlights that EcoSwing is not only a fungicide that acts on the developmental and reproductive structures of a wide spectrum of fungi, but it is also a stimulator of the basal defenses of the plant, considered a natural and novel mechanism that is not common in fungicidal plant extracts.
For this reason, it promises to revolutionize the integrated management of diseases caused by fungi in a variety of crops, including rice (Gaeumannomyces graminis, Sarocladium oryzae and grain spotting); strawberry, grape, blackberry, blueberry, raspberry (Botrytis cinerea); gulupa, passion fruit, granadilla, curuba, chulupa (Roña-Cladosporium sp.); avocado, mango, peach, zapote (Anthracnose (Colletotrichum spp.); banana (Black Sigatoka (Pseudocercospora fijiensis) and Crown Rot (Colletotrichum spp.); and cannabis (Botrytis cinerea).
But beyond the benefits that the use of products such as EcoSwing can bring in different crops, Vieda points out that, thanks to the strategic location of the company's new plant, they will have the ability to easily supply themselves with the raw material for its production.
"Swinglea glutinosa is a plant that we can find throughout the Antioquia region, Magdalena Medio, Valle del Cauca, Coffee Zone and, due to our location, they become a very important source of supply," says the executive.
Regarding the other products that will come out of this plant, Vieda also refers to the insecticide based on garlic and chili pepper extract called CapsiAlil®, a plant extract with a repellent and insecticidal effect and which already has an important penetration in the market.
"Additionally, we have a series of plants that are in the registration process where we are finding important metabolites with insecticidal and fungicidal effects," Vieda highlights about products that open up the possibility for Colombian and foreign farmers to have one more tool to reduce chemical load in crops, have no residues in harvests, and innovate in integrated pest and disease management.
GOWAN EXPECTS TO EXPORT BETWEEN 5 AND 7 MILLION LITERS OF BIOINPUTS
The new factory has an annual production capacity of 1,150,000 liters, of which they are already producing about 350,000 liters of EcoSwing in the country, although it is expected that, thanks to the expansion of registrations in more countries and the addition of new products to the portfolio, Gowan will reach an annual export from Colombia of between 5 and 7 million liters of bioinputs.
In addition, currently, as the executive points out, products are coming out of its Rionegro plant not only to supply the local market demand, but also to destinations such as the U.S., Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Italy, Dominican Republic and Costa Rica; consolidating Colombia as the 'global epicenter' for the company's biorationals.
