May 28, 2024

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

French ag-biotech leader Elicit Plant announced it is successfully expanding internationally, and is currently laying the groundwork for its entrance into the U.S. market in 2025.

Climate is rapidly becoming a global emergency. Rising temperatures and volatility in the form of severe droughts alternating with severe rainfall is negatively impacting agricultural yields leading to financial hardships for the world’s farmers. 

Likewise, extreme climatic conditions are leading to greater challenges with pests. Agricultural pests are the root cause of social, economic, and health damage that account for $70 billion in crop losses in the U.S. alone. However, not only are traditional pesticides broadly harmful to the beneficial insects that happen to be present, but are also significantly harmful to our environment and human health – all while the targeted pests continue to become more resistant to our tools at-hand.

Additionally, agriculture, land use, and deforestation combined represent the second-largest source of global greenhouse gas emissions, and are a significant contributor to the decline in biodiversity, as well as accounting for the usage of 70 percent of the available fresh water. 

But there are startups leveraging cutting-edge technologies that are bringing hope, such as Elicit Plant that is developing innovative bio solutions tailored for corn, sunflower, and straw cereal crops. 

The company’s products are based on disruptive approaches that utilize phytosterols, bioactive compounds that enhance a plant’s natural resilience in the face of abiotic stress while reducing their water consumption by up to 20 percent. 

Since launching its product Best-a in France in 2022, the company has quickly expanded into five new countries – Brazil, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, and Hungary – with Best-a for corn,  EliSun-a for sunflowers, and EliGrain-a for straw cereals showing outstanding results.

Then, in November 2023, Elicit’s strategic path pivoted when it secured European approval, opening the door for its products to be made available across the 27 countries of the EU bloc. 

“Each agricultural basin has its own specifics,” said Jean-François Déchant, CEO, Elicit Plant. “For instance, 75 percent of the agricultural land in Spain is at risk of desertification. In Brazil, farmers have faced three consecutive years of severe drought. In some areas, just for corn, water stress has halved the yields with losses estimated at 30 billion euros. In France, increasingly frequent and extreme climate variations are making agricultural yields insecure in an already challenging market.”

Elicit Plant noted that the rapid adoption it has seen for its products, particularly across Brazil and Eastern Europe, is reflective of a high level of awareness by farmers of the numerous impacts of climate change on food production, the economy, and food security, leading to a 150 percent annual increase in business.

Now, with a dual goal of innovation and sustained expansion, Elicit Plant explained that it plans to continue on its mission to accelerate agriculture’s adaptation speed to increasingly evolving climate changes affecting all regions of the world. 

“We are thrilled to announce that, since the launch of our first product in 2022, the Best-a, Elicit Plant has established a presence in five countries and has enjoyed triple-digit growth, reaching 150 percent growth each year,” said Déchant.

“To date, we project a revenue of over 10 million for our next campaign from September 2024 to June 2025, and we are actively preparing our entry into the American market in 2025.”

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and Agtech Intel News. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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