Embarking on an annual pilgrimage to the Animal Agtech Innovation Summit in San Francisco, Calif., swiftly followed by the World Agritech, should be the ideal time to take the temperature on all things agtech. The investor sentiment was undoubtedly cooler than in previous years, as indeed it is in the overall economy, with the sense that venture investors are sitting on the sidelines waiting for bigger exits than we have seen recently, and indeed some of the highest profile agri startup stars have recently been raising money on lower valuations than their previous rounds. So, in this context what is hottest from a dairy tech perspective?
Methane
The speed with which the market has decided that cow burps are the biggest thing to solve has been extraordinary, led globally by DSM’s product 3-NOP, but not surprisingly this has attracted a host of alternative offerings. Feed additives based on seaweed, yeast enriched with bromoform (Number8 Bio), grains enriched with anti-methane compounds (Elysia), other active ingredients claiming to block methane production in the rumen (Rumen8, Agteria). Even garlic, probiotics and essential oil feed additives are joining the party. This new market promises hundreds of millions of dollars of new sales for feed additive suppliers, but who is going to pay for this is still unanswered. If not the consumer, milk processors or big food companies, then unless these supplements also increase dairy productivity how will this extra cost be absorbed by producers when margins are already tight?
May 10, 2024
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