Fertiliser producer Mosaic Company has launched PowerCoat, its first proprietary biologicals product in Latin America, in Paraguay, while the equivalent rollout in Brazil, the region's largest farm market, remains held up pending a government decree, the company said on 16 September.

PowerCoat combines Bacillus microorganisms with mineral fertiliser, in effect coating conventional granules with a biological layer intended to improve nutrient uptake and plant health. It has cleared registration for sale in Paraguay. In field trials on tropical soils Mosaic reported yield gains of 3.5 bags per hectare in soybeans and 8 bags per hectare in maize, using the region's standard 60-kilogram bag, figures the company is using to build its commercial case ahead of a fuller Brazilian launch.

That launch cannot proceed yet even though trials are under way in Brazil. The country passed a general law on biological agricultural inputs, known as bioinputs, roughly two years ago, but the implementing decree needed to give it effect remains with Vice President Geraldo Alckmin's office. Mosaic said the decree should appear in the coming weeks, a timeline it treats as a near-term catalyst rather than a settled fact.

Eduardo Monteiro, Mosaic's country manager for Brazil and Paraguay, said the company expects its bionutrition revenue in Brazil to more than triple this year even without PowerCoat's full introduction, and that it has 10 to 12 further biological products in the pipeline for launch once the regulatory path is clearer. Felipe Pecci, commercial vice president for the region, is also involved in the rollout.

The Paraguay-first approach follows a pattern across the biologicals sector: companies launch in smaller, faster regulatory markets while larger economies with complex approval systems catch up. Brazil's bioinputs law was meant to speed registration of microbial biofertilisers and biopesticides, which historically faced timelines built around chemical pesticides rather than living organisms; until the decree is published, products that have cleared scientific review still wait.

Global demand for biological crop inputs has grown as farmers look to cut synthetic fertiliser and pesticide costs and meet buyer sustainability requirements, and Bayer, BASF, Corteva and FMC have all expanded biologicals investment. Mosaic's move into proprietary products rather than distributing others' signals that fertiliser majors now treat the category as core to their future mix.

Photo: Yenia Rivarola / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Source: Global Agriculture