São Paulo – Company Bug Agentes Biológicos (Bug Biologic Agents) sells the most surprising product in Brazil’s trade basket. The organisation, which is included in a world ranking as the most innovative company in Brazil, and the 33rd worldwide, exports sterilized insect eggs. Bug exports the eggs of insects for use in pest control in crops in Europe, Canada and Israel. In Brazil, the organisation sells the insects directly, but on the international market it sells eggs, which are hatched in laboratories.
According to the commercial director at Bug, Diogo Rodrigues Carvalho, exports currently answer to 20% of company production. The figure has already been 30% and the director believes that sales abroad will return to growth due to the exchange rate. Bug started exporting early into operation, sought by European importers. The continent has a tradition of biologic pest control.
But how do the Bugs work? They are predators of pests like caterpillars. After being produced in laboratory, they are placed among the crops and there they lay their eggs on the eggs of caterpillars. As the insect larvae eat the content of the eggs of pests, what hatches are little wasps, not caterpillars. The technology is used for any kind of crop attacked by caterpillars. Bug also produces parasites for control of other pests, like mites and plant sucking bugs, says the commercial director at the company.
Currently, Bug production is enough to supply up to 3,000 hectares a day. That represents 300 million insects. To produce, the company has four laboratories in the cities of Piracicaba, Charqueada, Limeira and Engenheiro Coelho. In between crops, the company employs about 70 people. During the crop season, in the southern summer, from November to March, the number of employees rises to 100, according to Carvalho.
In Brazil, Bug sells mainly to sugarcane producers in the state of São Paulo and in the Midwest. The products, however, are sold throughout the country and are used in large-scale crops and vegetable farms. It was in the latter area, in fact, that Bug found its first clients when it started operating, in 2001. “There were many works published about strawberries, tomatoes,” said Carvalho, regarding scientific production regarding pest control in these cultures. Production of insects was enough to cover just ten hectares.
The idea was thought up by Carvalho, a master’s colleague and the head of the Insect Breeding Department at the Luiz de Queiroz Higher School of Agriculture, of the University of São Paulo (USP), Heraldo Megri. Nowadays, only Carvalho and Megri continue with the business. At the time, the commercial director was working on his doctorate in Agricultural Entomology with Biological Control. The three noticed that, despite the existence of parasites, there was no commercial production, the breeding of insects for biological pest control.
Bug was included in the 2012 ranking by North American magazine Fast Company as the 33rd most innovative company in the world. It was also the first in Brazil. In the global list, the companies in the first places were Apple, Facebook, Google, Amazon and Square, in that order.
Contact
Bug Agentes Biológicos
Telephone: (+55 19) 3435 7435
E-mail: bug@bugagentesbiologicos.com.br
Site: www.bugbrasil.com.br
*Translated by Mark Ament
