When the European Commission started thinking about modernising the regulatory framework for products contributing to plant nutrition and soil fertility in 2010, it considered covering a group of products that helped plants tolerate abiotic stress, use nutrients more efficiently, and produce better harvests. But there was no industry counterpart to provide technical insights.
Recognising the opportunity, Prospero worked with industry pioneers to gather a small but diverse group of companies whose products included a range of components including microorganisms, plant and seaweed extracts, humic and fulvic acids, protein hydrolysates, and some other substances to forge a common identity and consensus around a definition that has broadly been adopted around the world, terminology, and anchoring of plant biostimulants in a broadened concept of plant nutrition.
From less than a dozen companies who attended the initial roundtable in 2011, the European Biostimulants Industry Council (EBIC) now counts more than 70 members. Prospero continues to support the association with a unique model that combines strategic consulting with management of a complex operational system. Over the years, we have accompanied EBIC through a series of challenges as varied as governance design and reform, regulatory change to secure market access, and now a market development phase that leverages past technical and political success to create demand for biostimulants by demonstrating their value to preventing losses from extreme climate events through thought leadership and stakeholder engagement.
Since 2022, Prospero has designed and executed the EBIC Summit, a high-level stakeholder conference that brings together leaders from farming, EU institutions, investment, adjacent industries, and civil society to debate how to make the agrifood sector more sustainable, looking at how policy, farming practices, consumer demand, industrial innovation, and cooperation can all play a role.
