Syngenta: «The EU must simplify processes to encourage sustainable innovation»

The EU Commission’s backtracking on the reduction of pesticides, which gives farmers more time, is only a half victory for the chemical multinationals in the fields. Because if the time needed to admit new molecules onto the market, including the most sustainable ones, is not made shorter, agriculture will remain short of discoveries against parasites and plant diseases. This is supported by Syngenta, one of the four great global agropharmaceutical and fertilizer giants together with BASF, Bayer and Corteva. Swiss by birth, acquired by the Chinese ChemChina seven years ago, the group has a turnover of around 33 billion euros. Massimo Scaglia, with a CV of studies as an expert in agronomy, is the CEO of Syngenta Italia.

What do you expect from the European Union coming out of the next elections in June?

I believe that the Green Deal is on everyone’s agenda. The problem is that on the one hand the EU asks us to carry forward innovation to reduce the environmental impact of agrochemicals in the fields, but on the other it does not provide acceptable technical times for the approval of a new molecule, not even for products of non-chemical but natural origin. In Europe, innovation in agropharmaceuticals has stopped: the EU has not approved new molecules since 2019, the last one was one from BASF. Syngenta has recently brought three new insecticides onto the market, but none have been accepted in Europe. Some of these would be useful in Italy, for example against popilia, a beetle that eats leaves and which we are currently unable to keep under control. We ask that products be evaluated according to scientific and non-political methods. The goal is not to have niche organic agriculture, but to make better and more sustainable products available to everyone, without price discrimination.

What is the next big research frontier in your sector?

If we look at Europe, TEA, i.e. agricultural biotechnologies, once approved could represent an important step towards optimizing the resistance of plants to certain pathogens. Syngenta is also working on it, especially with regards to vegetables. The other great frontier is biostimulants, which we can consider the organic alternative to chemical fertilizers. The biostimulant is of natural origin, it is not given to the soil but directly to the plant and allows us to reduce the quantity of fertilizers in the field: exactly as the EU asks us, which has established a reduction in chemical fertilizers of 20% by 2030. For for example, 50 grams of our product based on azotobacter salistris can replace between 60 and 80 kilos of urea, introducing a microorganism into the soil that helps fix nitrogen. To enhance research in this field, in 2020 we acquired Valagro, which is based in Atessa, in the province of Chieti, and has today become the global reference center for the entire group in this sector. Today Syngenta Biologicals, which together with biostimulants also includes biocontrol agents, represents 13% of our turnover and within four years it will rise to 25%.