Biobest, based in Westerlo, Antwerp province, is a world leader in sustainable crop management and will supply the Chinese with bumblebees to be used for the pollination of commercial crops. “Biobest is convinced of the huge market potential for bumblebees in the Chinese market, thanks to the increasing awareness of Chinese consumers about food safety and the efforts of the Chinese government in promoting agriculture and protected horticulture,” the company said in a statement.
The agreement was signed in Beijing during an official visit by federal foreign affairs minister Didier Reynders and was made possible by collaboration between the federal food safety agency and the Chinese General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.
The bumblebee is one of the 250 or so species of the genus Bombus, related to the honeybee. The bumblebee is an extremely important pollinator of agricultural crops, and colonies are often placed in tomato greenhouses.
According to Biobest CEO Jean-Marc Vandoorne, bumblebees can increase tomato yields by up to 30%. “Bumblebees have many advantages over other methods of pollination, and we have no doubt that Chinese growers will find their way very quickly in using our hives. As we see in other markets throughout the world, growers quickly adapt to a more sustainable method of production, after bumblebees have entered their greenhouses. The next step to biological control lies within the use of various mites and beneficial insects to tackle diverse pests.”
In February, Biobest started producing commercial numbers of bumblebees for the Argentinean horticultural market, using the native South American species Bombus atratus.
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