Future Factors Shaping Biologicals Scalability

This article provides AgbioInvestor’s preliminary assessment of the global biopesticides and biostimulants markets in 2025 and a discussion of the factors that will shape the scalability of the segment going forward in 2026.

This represents estimated sales of products at the ex-manufacturer level expressed in U.S. dollars, with currency conversion using average year exchange rates.

Global Market Overview

In 2024, the global biological crop protection market increased by 3.0% to reach $2,026 million, excluding fermentation products and copper and sulphur fungicides, all of which are classified as bio-aligned in AgbioInvestor’s definition. The 2024 global biostimulant market increased by 3.7% to reach $3,963 million.

Grower incomes and farm economics were under significant strain, with high cost of borrowing and declining commodity prices as key factors. Biological products remain offered at a premium price point and are sensitive to farm income changes.

In 2025, the market was characterized by low crop commodity prices by historical standards, yet higher areas of key crops in Brazil and Argentina and improved weather conditions were positives for biologicals market development.

National food security and sustainability agendas of many countries, with government financial and regulatory support, continued to support industry growth despite challenging conditions. Our preliminary assessment of the biopesticide market in 2025 was for growth in the mid to high single digits percentage range.

The Scalability Factor

A question that is often asked in the biologicals industry is to what degree is the biologicals market scalable. Although the biologicals industry growth is expected to continue outpacing the wider crop protection market, the main challenges that need to be overcome for wider adoption include reducing the cost of production, improving supply chains, product efficacy, and grower support.

Many companies are now seeking to utilize new and optimized approaches that will support market growth including:

• Improved strain selection and optimization, e.g., artificial intelligence and machine learning and gene editing.
• Technological innovation, such as biosynthesis in yeast.
• Increased production scale, including larger fermentation vessels.
• Lower energy usage, for instance, optimization of reaction conditions, shorter processes, lower temperatures, optimization of enzyme utilization, and renewable energy sources.
• Precision application of biologicals ensuring increasing efficiency of bioinputs usage.
• Improvements to shelf life/storage conditions.
• Better formulation technologies to reduce AI rates.

Biological products remain more expensive on average compared to typical conventional pesticide products, so any benefit to cost competitiveness will favor adoption, particularly in margin-sensitive row crops. If this stimulates wide volume increases and market share gains, this could drive economies of scale somewhat further. However, there will be a natural floor price, beyond which, further optimization of production will not achieve further price competitiveness.

Another significant factor in scalability will be the availability of feedstocks for naturally sourced materials. These include seaweed extracts, humic substances, and plant extracts. Materials such as humic substances are often mined from brown coal deposits, where China has a significant advantage through large deposits. As this feedstock is readily abundant, the main factors in scalability for humic substances will be the economics of extraction and the end demand at the grower level influenced by product acceptance, efficacy, competition with other biostimulant segments, and farm economics. The utilization of local feedstocks, where possible, will likely assist in keeping transportation costs down, which could also further support the cost position of the end product and support adoption and scalability.

For seaweed extracts, the market is split between wild harvest and commercial cultivation. Although seaweed is generally a fast-growing feedstock, there are of course sustainability considerations that need to be taken into account. Seaweed as a feedstock is also in demand in several other industries such as food processing and pharmaceuticals. As such, achieving significant reductions in the cost of production may be more challenging compared to segments where the feedstock is a widely available mined mineral deposit.

The scalability of both the biopesticide and biostimulants industries will also heavily depend on the national levels of regulatory support for biological products and on any financial incentives aimed at supporting farmer adoption. This will be vitally important in emerging biological markets such as India, and also for regions where biologicals have yet to make a significant impact such as within much of Africa.

Read more articles like this one in AgriBusiness Global’s 2026 Biologicals Deep Dive.