Argentina's 'agri-tech' innovators
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2025
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Argentina, a country often associated with economic turbulence, is emerging as a frontrunner in agricultural biotechnology and home to a third of Latin America's start-ups.
From shrimp shells to super crops, we explore how a blend of scientific talent, venture capital and cutting-edge research is starting to transform farming - one of the country's most important sectors.
While Argentina is becoming a global player in this area, can this boom be sustained amid economic and political challenges in the country?
If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: businessdaily@bbc.co.uk
Presented and produced by Natalio Cosoy
(Picture: Engineer Mario Nejamkin, and Claudia Casalongue, cofounder and scientific lead at agri-tech start-up Unibaio, standing in a potato field in Argentina. Credit: BBC)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:06.0 | I'm Natalio Kosoi and today as part of a week of programs on startup businesses around the globe, |
| 0:13.0 | I'm in Argentina looking at its impressive biotech startups ecosystem. |
| 0:18.0 | Today there are over 120 startups in Argentina, mostly around biotech. |
| 0:23.3 | It's one of the leading countries in the world regarding the amount of biotech companies |
| 0:27.6 | here in Argentina. In a country known for inflation and brain drain, biotechnology is quietly booming. |
| 0:34.9 | Dozens of companies have populated a diverse landscape in the past 15 years, |
| 0:40.1 | trying to follow in the footsteps of established market leaders. |
| 0:44.2 | We are today the only company in the world that has achieved drought tolerance in two major crops, |
| 0:50.8 | soybean and wheat. |
| 0:52.6 | We probably have more patents than the rest of the Argentine companies combined. |
| 0:58.2 | Thanks to a combination of public and private investment, ingenuity and favorable conditions, |
| 1:04.7 | Argentina has developed a biotech startup scene that outpaces that of its giant naval Brazil, |
| 1:12.8 | establishing itself as a model for other developing countries in the region and the world. We scout for scientists and entrepreneurs, |
| 1:19.1 | we invest in them and we work with them as they build their startups. Who are the people behind |
| 1:26.1 | this push? What are the lessons they've learned? |
| 1:29.6 | And what is the future of this growing sector? |
| 1:32.6 | That's all coming up in this edition of Business Daily from the BBC World Service. |
| 1:42.6 | I am in Mar del Plata, a seaside town four or five hours drive south of Buenos Aires, |
| 1:49.0 | and there's a good reason I'm standing here by the sea. |
| 1:52.0 | It's because the company I'm about to visit uses shrimp shells as its main input. |
| 2:09.6 | A few kilometers inland inside a large building full of labs and offices, the company Univayo is developing their product |
... |
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