Brazil and Argentina Deepen Cooperation on Biological Crop Inputs
14 September 2026, Buenos Aires, Argentina: A Brazilian agricultural delegation traveled to Argentina in early September to open a joint agenda on bioinputs, the biological crop protection and nutrition products increasingly used as alternatives or complements to conventional agrochemicals, in a move both governments and industry groups describe as a first step toward positioning South America as a global leader in the category.
The mission, which held a technical seminar at Brazil’s embassy in Buenos Aires and visited the Gorina experimental research station in Buenos Aires province on September 4, brought together Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, the crop protection industry group CropLife Brasil, and the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, ApexBrasil, with Argentina’s Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, the national food and agricultural health regulator SENASA, the agrochemical and fertilizer industry chamber CASAFE, the bioinputs industry chamber CABIO, and Buenos Aires provincial agriculture officials.
Fernando Schwanke, the representative in Argentina for the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), which helped organize the exchange, said Brazil and Argentina “are two leading players in the bioinputs sector and can be leaders in the hemisphere.” Angela Pimenta Peres, Brazil’s director of commercial promotion, technical cooperation and investments at the agriculture ministry, framed the challenge in more practical terms, saying the task now is “to transform scientific knowledge into solutions accessible to producers.”
Aligning rules before expanding trade
The talks focused heavily on regulatory questions rather than pure science: participants discussed convergence of product registration rules between the two countries, which currently maintain separate approval pathways for biological products, along with quality standards intended to curb informal and unregistered products circulating in both markets. That regulatory gap has practical consequences. Brazil has built one of the world’s largest bioinputs markets over the past several years, to the point that the country now has more biological agricultural products registered than conventional chemical ones, according to figures cited at the meeting. Argentina, by contrast, is still working through a proposed Bioinsumos Law intended to create a clearer national framework for approving and regulating these products, a gap that CABIO president Jimena Sabor highlighted at a related seminar in late August, when she said the two countries “have dynamic markets, technical capacities and enormous potential to advance bioinputs development.”
The discussions also touched on the broader trade context shaping the sector, including the implications of the European Union-Mercosur trade agreement for agricultural exports and the rising international demand for crops grown with lower conventional pesticide and fertilizer inputs, a trend that is pushing buyers in Europe and elsewhere to favor suppliers who can document sustainable production practices. Officials described the next step as building a shared regional work agenda between the two countries, covering research collaboration, harmonized regulation and commercial market access, though no binding agreement or specific implementation timeline was announced.
Why this matters beyond Argentina and Brazil
Bioinputs, which include biopesticides derived from bacteria, fungi or plant extracts, biofertilizers built around nitrogen-fixing or nutrient-solubilizing microorganisms, and biostimulants that improve plant stress tolerance, have grown rapidly worldwide as growers look for tools that reduce chemical residue concerns, fit organic and low-input production systems, and, in some cases, cost less than imported synthetic alternatives. Brazil and Argentina together account for a large share of South America’s soybean, corn and wheat acreage, so any move to harmonize how the two countries register and trade these products has the potential to reshape supply chains for input manufacturers well beyond the region.
Global Agriculture is an independent international media platform covering agri-business, policy, technology, and sustainability. For editorial collaborations, thought leadership, and strategic communications, write to pr@global-agriculture.com
