Momentum and Milestones: NewLeaf Aims to Double Sales Next Year

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 15:27:57 GMT

With more than 10 years of research and four years of commercial availability, NewLeaf Symbiotics is continuing to chart its own course in bringing row crop and specialty solutions via pink-pigmented facultative methylotrophs (PPFMs).

Its trajectory includes product placement on just under 1 million acres four years ago to having product on more than 8.5 million acres in 2025. Next year’s goal is to double that.

“We’re focused on the next thing, not just the right now,” says Brent Smith, CEO at NewLeaf Symbiotics. “But the right now feels pretty good”

The company recently opened a new formulation office with a larger footprint, advanced laboratories, and strategic location in St. Louis.

“Our success is because we got good at consistency with a tricky microbe class,” Smith says. “The focus is: formulation, optimization and performance. With that we will continue to be consistent.”

The company chose a novel go-to-market in licensing its technologies to partner companies for product placement and sales. Currently, it has a handful of technologies available via 100 commercially available products. The portfolio includes an EPA-registered bioinsecticide and biostimulants for row crops including corn, soybeans, cotton and peanuts, as well as a vegetative transfer biostimulant. Leaders says there’s more to come with launches for 2026, pending regulatory approval.

“We’ve found traction commercially,” says Aaron Kelley, chief commercial officer. “We have three launches in 2026, an EPA-registered biofungicide, nitrogen use efficiency technology, and a specialty biostimulant for transplant vegetables.”

Kelley credits trust built over time for the product growth. He points to the 70% win rate the company boosts as well as a two-year shelf life for its products.

“Every technology that becomes commercially available from NewLeaf has been field tested with multi-year, multi-location, plots of 10+ acres. We want our partners to have confidence in the products they are recommending to their customers.”

Kelley says biologicals can help farmers thread the needle with integrated pest management and layered crop protection.

“It’s been an interesting development to see how people are seeing biologicals as part of integrated pest management,” he says. “And there’s still more to learn and more yield to gain when our technologies are used along with others.”

3 Questions Every Farmer Should Ask About Biological Products

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 13:53:31 GMT

Pam Marrone, co-founder of Invasive Species Corporation, and previous founder of two additional biological businesses, shared her key takeaways with certified crop advisers during a recent webinar hosted by the Science Societies.

Marrone says there are three areas to evaluate before farmers make an application of a biological product:

Specific use instructions
Science
Data

Specific Use Instructions
“First, read the label,” she says. “When do I use it? What’s the timing? Is there any effect on soil? Can I tank mix it? Can I mix it with fertilizer? Can I mix with other pesticides? Some of the labels I’ve seen can be very specific, and others give you almost no information. So, that’s important. Read the label.”

In reviewing label information, identify if the product is registered with the EPA (which requires a higher level of requirements) or non-registered. Also, the specificity provided on the label is an indicator about the overall product quality and performance.

“There are products that are bugs in the jug, and they have a consortium of microbes in the jug or bag. If the product has 500 or 800, it should be proven why all those specifies are necessary, and if quality control is being done on all 500 species,” Marrone says.

Marrone has been working toward one national certification of products to eliminate any issues with heavy metals or human pathogens being included in formulations.

“Quality control measures need to be robust,” she says.

Science
Marrone says in order to draw a line between “snake oil” and reputable products, the manufacturer and the retailer should be able to explain the science behind the product.

“It’s no longer good enough to just say ‘we have the best microbes,’” she says.

For best placement and performance, Marrone emphasizes the importance of understanding how the biological works.

Data
Marrone encourages farmers to seek out significant proof of field data.

“Small plots don’t always work with biologicals,” she says. “And when you are looking at field data, know where the trials were conducted and what the consistency was.”

Marrone believes today’s biological industry has progressed to a new performance threshold.

“These days, you really want to see a win rate of at least 80%. So, 80% of the time you’re seeing a yield increase of at least 7% —anything below that is just noise,” she says. “I know companies today getting consistent 10% yield increases. That’s where the bar has been raised to.”

Purchase With Purpose

Momentum and Milestones: NewLeaf Aims to Double Sales Next Year

3 Questions Every Farmer Should Ask About Biological Products