Biobest Antalya to integrate Antilsan’s activities in biological control and pollination

Biobest Antalya and Antilsan today announced that, as of January 1st, 2015, all activities related to biological control and pollination in Turkey will be fully integrated in Biobest Antalya. Biobest Antalya, set up as a production joint venture between Antilsan and Biobest in 1998 has become Turkey’s
leading producer of bumblebees for pollination. Antilsan has built a strong distribution presence in the Turkish market for pollination and biological control. Its success is based on the quality of its technical advice and a strong product offering combining bumblebee hives from Biobest Antalya with biocontrol solutions from the Biobest group. The rapid growth of the Turkish market requires further investments in production and distribution. Antilsan and Biobest Antalya decided to opt for a streamlined integrated setup covering all production and distribution activities inside Biobest Antalya.



Hasan Sever, CEO of Antilsan: “Antilsan has built a strong technical sales team to develop its leading position as a provider of premium bumblebee hives. This is an ideal platform to develop the biological control business, now that the Turkish market is ready for it. We are witnessing an exponential increase in the interest in integrated pest management (IPM). Growers face pest populations resistant to pesticides, retailers in key export markets and in Turkey raise the bar with regard to absence of pesticide residues. This is the right time to invest, together with our partner Biobest, in local production of biocontrol products and in an even stronger market presence. It made a lot of sense to do this via a single fully integrated company, in which we increased our stake in return for the
integration of our distribution arm.”

“We are excited that the teams of both companies will be working together in Biobest Antalya”, says Mehmet Oba, Sales Director of Biobest Antalya: “Turkish agriculture is rapidly gaining momentum. Biobest Antalya has a compelling proposition to Turkish growers: a strong team of experienced IPM advisors in the field and a unique combination of state of the art local production infrastructure with the know-how and the innovation pipeline of a global leader”.

Jean-Marc Vandoorne, CEO of the Biobest Group, adds: “Our partnership with Antilsan has been very successful till now. Together we played a key role in the early development of the IPM market. The market has now reached its inflection point. The full integration of our joint activities in biocontrol and pollination allows us to focus all our attention on serving the needs of our customers in Turkey and on helping them to produce a residue-free crop in a sustainable way.”

For more information, please contact:
Biobest Antalya
Mehmet Oba
Email:moba@antilsan.com.tr
www.biobestgroup.com

Biobest Belgium NV
Lise Verachtert
Email: lise.verachtert@biobest.be
www.biobestgroup.com