Soybeans benefit from NZ invention

By SIMON COLLINS

IOWA - New Zealand technology developed to control grassgrub may soon be used to make soybeans grow better.

An American company that describes itself as the world leader in seed coatings, Becker Underwood, is evaluating the technology after a New Zealand biotech trade mission's visit to its home state of Iowa during the weekend.

Its chief executive, Roger Underwood, flew to Auckland earlier to persuade the New Zealand developers to let him use the technology.

"He found it through the New Zealand Herald website on a literature search because you ran a story when we launched the product in March," said Dr Elizabeth Hopkins of Encoate, the one-woman company set up last year to market the technology.

"I said, 'I'm not ready to commercialise with international companies yet'.

"He said, 'I'm going to come over and change your mind'."

Another US company, Monsanto, bought the rights to the technology after AgResearch developed it to coat an anti-grassgrub insecticide with a biological coating that extended its effective life from four hours to a year.

But Monsanto had such a wide range of products that it was never able to make enough money out of the coating technology, so it returned the rights to AgResearch.

Encoate, a joint venture between AgResearch and the fertiliser company Ballance Agri-Nutrients, re-launched the product as "BioShield".

Hopkins said the technology also had potential to enhance the shelf-life of food, vaccines and other biological substances.

Becker Underwood is looking at using it to extend the life of a product that enhances the ability of soybeans, clover and other plants to extract nitrogen from their environments.

Preliminary results suggest the New Zealand technology increases the survival rate by 60 per cent.

The Iowa company is now investigating other possible uses of the technology, such as keeping soil worms alive during shipping to a customer.

Hopkins declined to comment on AgResearch's and Ballance's long-term plans for the technology.

But Becker Underwood looks a likely buyer if either shareholder decides to sell.

In the past two years, it has bought six other companies, including Australia's Bio-Care Technology.

When he bought Bio-Care in March, Underwood said the company had a plan for "investment and acquisition in Australia, New Zealand and Asia".