Biobest Group NV (Biobest), a worldwide supplier of solutions for biological control of pests and disease, and Ecoation Innovative Solutions Inc. (ecoation), a Canadian developer of automated greenhouse management and crop health monitoring technologies, have signed a partnership agreement effective January, 2021. This partnership allows Biobest to offer ecoation’s grower assist solution to their European customer network.
North Vancouver, BC (Tuesday, March 30, 2021) - ecoation offers solutions centred around closed-loop IPM, providing yield production assessments and crop work quality checks. Within the IPM solution, ecoation technology allows for the digitization of the IPM workflow, including scouting observations, and real-time pest risk alerts. ecoation delivers insights at a m2 granularity of the greenhouse and provides an essential tool for the rapid information gathering and knowledge distribution necessary for timely optimization of biological control strategies.
Present in over 70 countries worldwide, Biobest offers high quality biological control agents and bumblebees for pollination to growers of greenhouse and berry crops. Being an award-winning player in the field of IPM, Biobest stands out by providing growers worldwide with best-in-class customized technical advice.
Given the shared goal of driving value for growers through optimizing their IPM, Biobest and ecoation have entered into a channel partnership in which Biobest will offer the ecoation OKO machine to European growers. The ecoation technology is an enabler for optimizing the use of biocontrol agents. The digitized IPM workflow in combination with Biobest’s expertise on biocontrol will ultimately optimize the IPM program of Biobest customers. The two companies will cooperate closely to ensure customers benefit from a seamless experience by offering the equipment and analytics to diagnose improvement opportunities and the means to execute the adjustments.
At a glance, some of the many synergies identified include:
Growers can benefit from ecoation’s early detection of new IPM risks and identify inefficiencies & optimization opportunities in beneficials treatment strategy.
“Growers can work with Biobest in using ecoation’s IPM services to optimize their treatment plan, not only benefiting from proven cost savings that we’ve seen from the implementation of our services but also other benefits that come from happy, healthy plants,” comments ecoation Founder and CEO, Dr. Saber Miresmailli.
“The Biobest technical advisors are experts when it comes to guiding our customers in their IPM program and optimizing biocontrol in their greenhouse. Being able to combine this expertise with the readings & scouting data digitally available through the ecoation service will further optimize running IPM programs. Human and machine joining forces have a very high potential in creating optimal IPM.” comments Jean-Marc Vandoorne, Biobest CEO.
“The benefits that come from a long, accurate plant health history are similar to those of having the same family doctor since you were young,” shares ecoation Founder and CEO, Dr. Saber Miresmailli. “With access to ecoation’s IPM insights, Biobest experts will be able to visualize past health concerns in an organized, easy-to-access form as a tool to diagnose current issues and provide next steps.”
“Unburdening our customers by bringing them high quality products to employ the best technical IPM advice there is in the industry, is what we strive to do every day. This partnership will further allow to deploy this strategy and will help growers and Biobest to optimize IPM like never before” concludes Jean-Marc Vandoorne, Biobest CEO.
About ecoation:
ecoation is an award-winning grower-centric platform that combines Human knowledge and experience with Machine precision and automation to increase operational visibility, assist growers, and enhance their decisions. Commercially available since September 2019, ecoation products can be found in greenhouses across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe. With an experienced team of 60+ growers, scientists, engineers, and business professionals from all over the globe, ecoation is passionate about enabling a cleaner future and supporting growers in making the best possible decisions. At ecoation, we are on a mission to empower growers because we believe in doing so, we win together. More information at ecoation.com. Find ecoation on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
For ecoation media inquiries, please contact Cameron Lust, ecoation Marketing Coordinator (cameron.lust@ecoation.com).
About BioBest:
A global leader in biological pest and disease control and bumblebee pollination of high value greenhouse and berry crops, Biobest exports weekly to over 70 countries worldwide.
Biobest has local production and/or distribution subsidiaries strategically sited in 20 countries worldwide, plus an extensive network of local specialised distributors located in an additional 50 countries on six continents. Employing 1700 employees worldwide, our extensive production, supply chain, sales and technical advisory network provides an efficient global service delivering fresh quality product to countries every week using our highly specialised cold chain logistics.
Today our product portfolio features a comprehensive range of IPM solutions - including beneficial insects, predatory mites, bumblebees, insect pathogenic nematodes and biopesticides as well as monitoring, scouting and pheromones products.
Our highly skilled technical team – comprising 160 in-house and 250 distributor advisors – assists growers worldwide to provide best-in-class customized technical advice. To further enable the best possible results for growers, Biobest continually invests in R&D programs to innovate and improve our products and solutions as well as to develop digital tools to help growers collect and record information on pest and disease incidence, severity and distribution.
For Biobest media inquiries, please contact Lise Verachtert, Biobest Communication Coordinator (lise.verachtert@biobestgroup.com).