ZDC: Dedicated to biotechnology research to power up development of green agriculture

Editor’s note:

In this interview conducted by AgroPages, we had the honor of having an in-depth exchange with Mr. Luan, Board Chairman of Qingdao Zhongda Agritech Co., Ltd.(ZDC). Through the interview, we are able to gain a more comprehensive understanding of ZDC’s development history, core competency and future strategic planning.

Interviewee: ZDC Board Chairman Mr. Luan 

AgroPages: 

First of all, we would like Mr. Luan to give us a briefing of the main business and development history of ZDC.

Mr. Luan:

Okay. As founded in 2000, ZDC is a designated manufacturer of pesticide and fertilizer endorsed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China. The main business covers research and development, production and marketing of pesticide and special fertilizer.

The company development has experienced three key stages:

The first, in 2002, we produced fungicides branded ‘Yi sheng’ and ‘Guo ye an’ in cooperation with Dow AgroSciences, which were sold well in the fruit tree regions in north China. This enabled establishment of the initial brand influence of the company. 

The second, since 2009, our company has developed new-generation acaricides which were applied to citrus tree. After more than 10 years of market expansion, we have established our dominant position in the citrus tree market.

The third, after 2010, the marine-based biological product ‘Oligosacharins’(Chitosan oligosaccharide) developed by ZDC was granted the first TC registration in China by the Ministry of Agriculture, followed by continuous development of 8 formulations; in 2015, the company made further biological-oriented research and carried out research on seaweed biostimulants, living microorganism and secondary metabolite, having developed differentiated and superior biological products and technologies with proprietary intellectual property rights. This is a substantive breakthrough for ZDC in the biological-oriented transformation and upgrading. 

AgroPages: 

What is the business philosophy of ZDC?

Mr. Luan:

Since its founding, ZDC has devoted itself to agriculture, with our special aspiration and passion. Guided by the green development concept and the actual needs of crop farming, the company has been constantly developing new technologies, new products and new solutions that are eco-friendly and uniquely valuable for agriculture, via scientific and technological innovation, such that we can better serve agriculture. 

ZDC’s strategic planning is concentrated on the following 5 aspects:

1. To consolidate ZDC’s fruit tree market position; dig deep into the cash crop market; and explore the field crop market.

2. To promote the transformation of the company’s product structure and service mode to better meet the needs of green ecological farming:

   
   

1. To stress on development of new products or technologies such as granular, water-based, nanoscale and UAV spraying products;

2. To constantly increase proportion of biological pesticide and fertilizer in the company’s sales.

3. To accelerate the innovative formulations layout to seize the first opportunity and grow market share to enable us to become a leading supplier of innovative formulations.

4. To make use of ZDC’s advantages of marine-based biological resources at home and abroad, endeavoring to become an influential brand in the specialty fertilizer industry.

   
   

3. To strengthen innovation capacity, enabling research and development to become an important driver to the company’s strategic development.

4. To make continuous upgrade of the facilities of our plant located in Xinhe Eco-chemical Park to create a first-class production base via operating management systems such as HSEQ.

5. To accelerate the integration of high-quality international resources, and develop overseas market.

AgroPages: 

What are the reasons for ZDC to transform its business operation towards biological development?

Mr. Luan:

There are 4 reasons:

The first, the challenges to modern agriculture. Due to the long-time use of chemical pesticide and fertilizer, the agroecological issue and soil degradation become a serious concern. It is urgent for the agrochemical industry to develop alternative environment-friendly products, which is a good opportunity of developing biological agricultural inputs. 

The second, the study and judgment of the agrochemical development trend at home and abroad. In recent years, global agrochemical giants have continuously made deployment in the biological industry through strategic investment, mergers and acquisitions as well as multiple ways of cooperation. According to relevant data, biological ag products will grow at a compound annual growth rate of about 13.8% in the coming years. This shows that biological products have become an important pillar to the promotion of the sustainable development of agriculture. Therefore, it becomes a top priority to make deployment in the biological industry, develop biological pesticide and fertilizer, and enhance the core competency of enterprises. 

The third, the rapid development of biotechnology. In particular, the application of gene editing technology and the natural product extraction technique in agricultural production has provided a technical safeguard to the research, development and industrialization of agricultural biological products.

The fourth, the company’s long-year research and achievement in the marine biology. ZDC is located in the coastal city of Qingdao, where the marine research capacity takes up more than 50% of the country’s marine research capacity. Since 2002, ZDC has cooperated with the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in development of Oligosaccharins series products, being one of China’s earliest marine research enterprises with largest number of relative product registrations, having accumulated rich experience, resources and technology in research and development of marine biology. This has laid a solid foundation for the company’s transformation towards biological development. 

AgroPages: 

Can you tell us about ZDC’s advantages built up in the course of transformation towards biological development? 

Mr. Luan:

In the process of transformation, we are faced with a lot of challenges, mainly due to the high spending in technology R&D, the long cycle of development and the lack of awareness of biopesticides from the market.

Nevertheless, challenges and opportunities exist side by side. With the emerging conception of sustainable agriculture and the enhancement of environmental protection, biological products are more and more regarded and preferred by the market. Through technological innovation and product upgrading, we have successfully seized the market opportunity and built up our core competitive advantage, which is reflected in the following four aspects:

1. A talented work team. Through collaborative innovation, we have introduced industry expert team and cutting-edge technology which provide a technical safeguard to the development and industrialization of our biological products. In addition, we have set up our own biological R&D team, covering majors of molecular biological research, fermentation engineering, marine chemistry and detection technology. By undertaking government projects and cooperative research programs, our R&D team has been working dedicatedly on biological development. Hence, our biological research capacity is being improved constantly. 

   
   

2. Resources. 1) Microbial strain resources. Through independent isolation and identification, we have established a library of strains which is biologically active on agricultural diseases, providing germplasm resources to the development of live microbial bacteria, secondary metabolite and enzyme preparations. In the next few years, after long-term painstaking research and accumulation, we are prepared to release in succession to market our live microbial bacteria and metabolite products. 2) Seaweed resources. Via screening of global seaweed species, we have consolidated high-quality seaweed resources – Durvillaea Potatorum from Australia and came into an exclusive strategic cooperation with the supplier. The development of seaweed-related products is also a key area for subsequent business expansion.

   
   

3. Technology. 1) A high-expression and high-activity alginate lyase engineering strain was configured, which enables stable and dependable production. 2) Development of the seaweed enzymolysis and extraction process to retain more active ingredients from seaweed, such as alginate oligosaccharides, auxin, cytokinin, phenolic substances, betaine and mannitol. 3) Development of 3 key technologies in the field of chitosan oligosaccharide enzymolysis, purification and formulation, which ensure the stable and reliable effect of products. 

   
   

4. Products. 1) Have developed material grade products including seaweed enzymatic hydrolysate liquid and powder, alginate oligosaccharide using the high-quality seaweed raw material Durvillaea Potatorum from Australia, via patented enzymatic extraction process. 2) Have developed seaweed-based biostimulants and specialty fertilizers using our seaweed enzymatic hydrolysate products as material. 3) Formulating seaweed enzymatic hydrolysate material with pesticide, leading to development of biological innovative pesticide products in both solid and liquid form, of which the liquid product is a domestic initiation. 4) Have developed a series of products from marine biological plant defense elicitor - chitosan oligosaccharide, which can improve the crop’s resistance to biotic and abiotic stress. 

The industrialized production and application of the above 4 types of products are very much favored by the market and sales are greatly increased, thanks to the remarkable effects such as disease prevention and curation, growth promotion and stress resistance, wounds repair and soil amendment.

AgroPages: 

What is ZDC’s product research development strategy? What are the innovations?

Mr. Luan:

Our research and development strategy are to leverage modern biotechnology to build up the advantage of biological Technical/material while combining chemistry with biology, pesticide with nutrient. Hence, we aim at continuous development of differentiated and competitive agricultural products. This diversified R&D strategy enable us to better adapt to the market need and provide customers with more comprehensive and efficient solutions.

Marine source Technical and material is ZDC’s distinctive R&D direction, where we utilize the rich marine biological resources to have developed the Chitosan oligosaccharide Technical(Oligosaccharins) and the seaweed enzymatic hydrolysate materials, through our unique enzymatic hydrolysis process, which are applied to agricultural production to promote crop growth and improve stress resistance while reducing the use of chemical pesticide and fertilizer.

The integration of nutrients with pesticide is another innovative business of ZDC. This type of product combines the functions of nutrients and pesticide, aiming to achieve a dual effect by one-time application, thus providing a synergistic effect of nutrients and pesticide, which increases agricultural production efficiency. By addressing technical issues such as compatibility between pesticides and nutrients, crop safety, stability of integrated formulations, balance between pesticide efficacy and nutrients effect as well as the environmental safety, we can ensure that pesticides and nutrient elements are released simultaneously in the course of application of pesticide-nutrients integrated products while the stability and interaction effect of the two are maintained.

AgroPages: 

How does ZDC ensure the product effectiveness and safety in the research and development process?

Mr. Luan:

In the course of research and development, we take multiple measures to ensure the effectiveness and safety of our products. Firstly, in the product design stage, we give full consideration to the safety and environmental requirement of the product, such as selecting biodegradable raw materials, green and environment-friendly production processes. Secondly, we strictly evaluate product efficacy, residues and environmental impact during the R&D process, so as to ensure the effectiveness and safety of the products.

Moreover, we attach great importance to the product innovativeness and practicality. Via survey of the actual needs in agricultural production, we can ensure that the developed products can fix the difficulties and pain points of growers; our R&D team make constant exploration of new application technologies and application scenarios to constantly increase the market competitiveness of our products. These comprehensive measures are strong support to ZDC’s continued technical development, as well as to the sustainable development of agriculture.

AgroPages:

How does ZDC integrate agricultural service with product development and marketing? What is the role of agricultural service in ZDC’s overall business strategy?

Mr. Luan:

ZDC integrates agricultural service in all aspects of product development and marketing to ensure that our products can meet the actual needs of farmers, providing farmers with greatest value.

In the product development stage, we adhere to the customer demand-oriented product development concept, in combination with consideration of farmer’s using habits and real needs; we timely collect feedback from customers, listening to their practical suggestions, which is essential for the constant product development and optimization while enabling us to provide products of satisfactory effect and convenient use. 

In terms of marketing, we provide professional agrotechnical service, including provision of pest control knowledge, pesticide application skill and technical lecture to help farmers better understand and use our products; we pay regular site visit and conduct field trials; we organize on-site observations and meet farmers regularly in field to increase the market recognition of our products. 

Agricultural service plays an important role in ZDC’s overall business strategy, it is also an important means for us to promote the sustainable development of agriculture. We advocate the concept of scientific pesticide application, promote application of bio-derived pesticide and fertilizer to reduce the dependence on chemical pesticide and fertilizer which improves the ecological benefit of agriculture. This is not only a contribution to the development trend of modern agriculture, but is also contributive to establishment of ZDC’s reputation in social responsibility. 

AgroPages: 

What is your view on the biopesticide market trend? What are your messages to the industry players and partners of cooperation? 

Mr. Luan:

We are optimistic about the biopesticide market development trend. With people’s increasing concern on food security and environment, the market demand for biopesticide will continue to grow and the future prospect looks promising, attributable to biological properties of high efficiency, low toxicity, environment friendliness and low impact on human health.

In recent years, the biopesticide industry has progressed significantly. Looking into the future, there is still a long way to go, but we hope that bio-agricultural enterprises will work together to fix the pain points of crop protection and nutrition to promote the sustainable development of agriculture and contribute ourselves to agriculture; we also look forward to working with partners on a win-win basis via resource sharing, technical exchange, economic and trade cooperation to jointly make a blueprint for the development of green agriculture.

Conclusion: 

Through this interview, we have gained a more comprehensive understanding of ZDC. Starting as an enterprise focusing on pesticide research and development, growing into an innovation leader in the fields of biopesticide, biofertilizer and agricultural service, ZDC’s business development is full of wisdom and courage. Facing the future, ZDC is ready to go. There is a reason for us to believe that with ZDC’s continuous dedication to the fields of biopesticide, biofertilizer and agricultural service, the company will continue to play its increasingly important role in the scientific and technological development of the global agriculture, which is a representation of China’s contribution to promoting green agriculture.

Learn more about ZDC：www.zdcagri.com