Valent Introduces Biorational Business Unit

Valent U.S.A. Corp. has formed a new Biorational Business Unit — a team focused on delivering effective biorational crop protection and crop enhancement products to Valent customers.

Company officials said the dedicated biorational group is designed to meet increasing customer demand and to take advantage of corporate synergies as part of the Region Americas group of parent company Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. (SCC).

"The creation of our Biorational Business Unit represents a dramatic new approach to how Valent serves its customers,” says Jim Blome, Valent executive vice president and chief operating officer. “SCC and Valent are uniquely positioned in this industry with a focus on both biorational and traditional products for sustainable agriculture. This focus ultimately means a more complete portfolio of products and support to meet our customers’ individual needs — be they traditional, biorational, or a combination of both.”

Currently, Valent is the exclusive marketer in North America of all crop protection and crop enhancement products of Valent BioSciences Corp. (VBC), a fellow company within SCC and a global leader in biorational products. According to Eric Tamichi, the new manager of the Valent Biorational Business Unit, Valent will continue to provide VBC products to current customers, but with an even stronger focus and increased collaboration with VBC on support and new technologies.

"This new, focused business unit gives the Valent customer base access to VBC technology and technical support in a focused and streamlined way,” Tamichi says. “It’s great to be able to provide information and best practices to our customers based on VBC’s global footprint, and to best meet the needs of our customers.”

Valent will continue to market a number of VBC biorational products in the United States, including DiPel and XenTari biological insecticides, DiTera nematicide and ReTain, ProGibb, MaxCel, ProVide, Promalin, Release, and RyzUp plant growth regulators, while planning for increased innovation and additional new products.

In addition to increased customer offerings and support, Blome says this reinforced focus on biorationals is a critical part of Valent’s growth path for the future.

"Sales of biorational products are projected to grow dramatically as retailer, food processor, consumer and grower demands for these types of products increase,” Blome says. “In fact, biopesticide growth is projected to increase from $594 million to $1.02 billion globally by 2015. Valent is poised to help grow the category in the United States, just as we are with our innovative portfolio of traditional chemistry for use in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs.”