Beyond agriculture – Opportunities to diversify
09.00 - 14.00 on Tuesday 16 October
Leven Suite, SECC

Organised by PestBusiness.com through Active Solutions and Xenex Associates.

Looking for new opportunities outside agriculture? This half-day seminar for directors and senior managers offers an insight into the world beyond agriculture taking in the non-crop sectors including amenity, consumer, ornamentals and public health pest management.

Rod Parker, (Managing Director, AIS, London, UK) will outline the size and scope of the global non-crop market. He will draw on new 2006 data to reveal the key changes since the last survey in 2001. How fast is the non-crop market growing? Which countries are leading that growth? Which market sectors are the rising stars? Where are tomorrow’s opportunities?

Understanding the route to market is one of the key building blocks for diversification success. Rob Fryatt (Senior Consultant, Xenex Associates, Horsham, UK) will look at the key players in the non-crop market. Who are they? How do they operate? What do they expect from pesticide manufacturers? In particular he will highlight the different channels to market prevalent in the non-crop arena.

Technical and regulatory differences will also be addressed. Data requirements do differ, often significantly. For example, crop residues tend to be much less of an issue in the sectors which are beyond agriculture and the regulatory focus is generally on the urban environment.

Specific market sector sessions will follow. Engaging with the consumer market is often a major challenge as the key companies in this sector – organisations like Tesco, Carréfour and so on expect a much greater degree of control over the products they promote and sell than is normal in the crop market.

Globalisation in the pest management industry will be addressed by Ted Brown (Senior Consultant, Copthall Associates, East Grinstead, UK). Dealing with international pest control businesses – each of which have a client base of even larger global businesses – presents significant management challenges and contrasts widely with the crop protection market.

Finally, Martin Brown (Managing Director, Exosect, Winchester, UK) will share his experiences covering the highs and lows of making the transition from an agriculture company to one operating beyond agriculture.

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