Overview
AgraQuest is at the leading edge of the next fundamental shift in how food is grown. Much the way genetically modified seeds changed food production in the previous decade, the increasing demand for low-chemical inputs for disease control and yield enhancement - providing reduced residues and environmental impact and improved worker safety - is changing how food will be grown in the next decade.
Market drivers for this shift in production techniques include:
- Consumers’ demand for cleaner food
- Growers’ desires for safer, more flexible inputs
- Governments’ increasingly strict regulation of older, harsher chemistries
- Shrinking arable land and water resources
- Growing global population
- A need for higher yield per acre
These forces are leading large, global agrochemical companies to invest in securing low-chemical input technologies that control disease and improve marketable production – the same technologies that have been developed at AgraQuest for the past 15 years.
Having spent the past decade and a half advancing the low-chemical technologies that are in demand by consumers, growers, and regulators, AgraQuest is uniquely positioned to capitalize on these new market forces with four products that have already been commercialized, and a deep and broad pipeline of innovative new products and solutions, including two in late-stage development.
Financial Performance
AgraQuest 2008 revenue was in the tens of millions of U.S. dollars, and the near-term plan has revenue growing to $200 million. Growth is expected both from today’s core markets in the U.S. and Canada, but also accelerated growth in international markets, including the imminent introduction of products in Brazil, currently the largest crop protection market in the world.
Well positioned for leadership in strategically important markets in the clean-tech revolution, AgraQuest offers a pipeline of biotechnology solutions have application for a wide array of industries including food production, food safety, post-harvest disease control, seed treatment, animal nutrition, structural pest control, vector control and others.
In addition to selling our agrochemical products directly in the NAFTA markets, AgraQuest has and is expanding partnerships with the preeminent, global agrochemical companies to distribute our products around the world.
In 2008, AgraQuest experience revenue growth of approximately 70% and has had a 5-year CAGR of 37%. AgraQuest expects ongoing, sustainable revenue growth and improvement in gross profit, and expects to achieve profitability in 2009.
Drivers for this revenue growth include:
- new product introductions in 2009 and beyond
- a robust pipeline of innovative and unique product offerings supported by AgraQuest’s strong research and development and commercialization platform
- the 2008 introduction of REQUIEM insecticide to the North American market
- growth in market share and additional applications for products lead by penetration of broad acre crops – soy, corn, wheat, rice, canola/oil seed rape – with more than 100 million addressable acres in the U.S. alone
- international expansions into large addressable markets for multiple AgraQuest products, including Brazil
- strong royalty and other revenues generated by AgraQuest’s BioInnovations Division from out-licensing intellectual property to ancillary markets.
AgraQuest, Inc. is a privately held company, with a group of supportive leading investors/financial partners, including TPG Growth (the growth capital arm of Texas Pacific Group), Otter Capital, Swiss Reinsurance, Emerald Ventures, Sustainable Performance Group, and Loudwater Trust, among others. More than $130 million has been invested in AgraQuest’s product development and commercialization platform.
To learn more about recent AgraQuest innovations and partnerships, please visit our news page.
Interested investors can contact Mark Moore, Director of Finance and Administration Accounting at for more information.