Spotlight: Argentine, Chinese firms join hands to bolster food biosecurity in China

Argentine and Chinese companies are joining hands to strengthen biosecurity in agriculture and food production in China and Asia.

Biogenesis Bago, the largest animal health company in Argentina, is replicating its experience in developing and producing a food-and-mouth (FMD) vaccine in China by cooperating with Hile Bio-technology based in the Chinese eastern metropolis of Shanghai, together with an eye on Asian agricultural market.

Bago's plant in Garin, a city located 40 kilometers north of Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires, carries out research, develops biotech products and veterinary services, and bring them to the market.

"It's a leader in vaccinating cattle against foot-and-mouth disease," Bago's operations manager Fernando Barroumeres told Xinhua during a tour of the 60,000-square-meter facility.

"We manufacture 200 million dosages of multipurpose vaccines a year for the entire region, and from here we transfer our technology to our joint venture in China," said Barroumeres.

In 2016, the bio-tech company went international, establishing a production plant in China jointly with Hile to exclusively produce a vaccine against FMD.

The plant located in Yangling Agricultural Hi-tech Industries Demonstration Zone in China's northwestern Shaanxi Province, is capable of producing 400 million dosages of the vaccine, first batches of which have already put into production, Bago's director Guillermo Mattioli told Xinhua.

"The goal is to orient ourselves to support China's capacity to produce biosecure food on a large scale in the dairy and pork industries," said Mattioli.

Both sides are trying to "produce the best-quality vaccine available in the world to protect" Asia's agricultural output, he added.

The initiative goes far beyond merely producing a quality vaccine, underscored Mattioli, since it maximizes collaboration in eradicating FMD, and at the same time boosts technological links with China's leading research centers.

"We want to connect with China comprehensively and provide solutions," said Mattioli.

According to agricultural statistics, China's potential market for the FMD vaccine is around 2 billion dosages a year, many times the size in Latin America, which is under 600 million.

Founded in 1934, Bago has affiliates in Brazil, Mexico, Bolivia, Uruguay and Central America. Due to Bago's performance and expansion in Asia, it has been elected as the best of 800 companies in the veterinary field in Latin America in 2014 by professional magazine Animal Pharm. Endi