The June edition of Agropages, the online Agribusiness magazine, featured a Focus on Latin America section. This contained an interview with SynTech’s Latin America Director, Fernando Gallina
Fernando describes SynTech’s services globally, then our operation in Latin America which started in 2009 and is now among the very few CROs that provide field, laboratory studies, regulatory consultancy and registration management – across most LATAM countries.
He points out that Latin American countries are among the top world food producers and exporters, with Brazil and Argentina among the three largest producers of soybeans, corn, sugar, coffee, cotton, cattle, poultry, and pork. All other countries have large fresh fruit and vegetable production; Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica are among the world’s largest banana and coffee producers. So Fernando sees Latin America as a tremendous opportunity for CROs supporting agrochemical and plant biotech development, especially since industry players now have much more confidence in outsourcing their R&D programs.
The crop protection sector is already highly regulated and Fernando sees a more open approach to new alternatives e.g. biopesticides, and risk assessment in the approval of chemical technologies.
He also describes plans for SynTech to expand in Brazil – new field stations, new bee toxicity and protein expression laboratories, and Seeds/Traits field services in the 2020-21 season. He points out that merger with Acceres will strengthen SynTech’s position further, particularly in the Regulatory area.
The full interview can be accessed here
Fernando Gallina, SynTech Latin America Director