Upstream Ag Professional - March 15th 2026

Welcome to the 136th edition of Upstream Ag Professional

Index

1. Exclusive Breakdown: 2025 DunhamTrimmer Biostimulant Report Highlights and Analysis

2. The Four Forces Rewriting the Future of Crop Protection

3. Follow-up From Last week: Crop Protection Is Not Pharma

4. What business are you really in? The four economic models redefining agricultural retail

5. The 8 Phases of AI in Agriculture

6. Precision spraying startup AgZen nets $10m Series B. ‘Quantifiable ROI drove our investment,’ says DCVC Bio

7. Quick Hits (5 this week)

8. Other Interesting Ag Articles (13 this week)

Thank you for being an Upstream Ag Professional member!

Due to travel issues, there is no audio edition this week. My apologies for the inconvenience.

1. Exclusive Breakdown: 2025 DunhamTrimmer Biostimulant Report Highlights and Analysis - Upstream Ag Professional

Within the email are Macro Market Highlights and a North American Market excerpt from the full breakdown.

The full Index is immediately below and overviews the rest of the topics covered.

1. DunhamTrimmer Report Overview

2. Biostimulant Opportunities

3. Biostimulant Market Insights: Global and North America

4. Commoditization & Differentiation in Biostimulants

5. Regulatory: US vs. Brazil and EU

6. Future

7. Other Interesting Facts & Figures

8. Appendix and Useful Images

Market Insights

The global biostimulant market hit $4.47 billion in 2024 according to the Dunham Trimmer report, and it’s projected to reach $7.88 billion by 2030, representing a roughly 10% CAGR.

The aggregate growth rate doesn’t highlight the regional variation, though.

Latin America and Asia-Pacific have overtaken Europe (the birthplace of biostimulants) as the largest biostimulant using regions, driven by Brazil, China, and India — markets with both earlier-stage growth curves and strong underlying demand. Latin America in particular is projected to approach 30% of global market share, with the highest regional growth rate.

Meanwhile, Europe and North America are slowing, with growth rates dropping below 10%. In Europe's case, this reflects saturation in the historical core markets of Spain and Italy — the same markets that pioneered biostimulant adoption thanks to companies like Valgaro (acquired by Syngenta).

As is common, the earlier adopting regions mature first, and growth comes from regions still climbing the adoption curve.

One stand out dynamic is that overall growth has decreased from previous reports — not because demand is weakening, but because the base is now large enough that relative percentages naturally compress. In absolute terms, the growth remains significant with the total market adding roughly $500 million annually now and forecast to add $650 million between 2029 and 2030.

North American Market Highlights

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