Chemicals are an essential part of our daily life.
They are the building blocks of modern medicines like vaccines, or diagnostics.
They are part of cosmetics and clothing
and make e-mobility, or your mobile phone work.
Overall, we see a growing awareness of how
our modern way of life impacts the world.
Behn Meyer has been the first German company in Singapore.
Our goal is to find novel technologies and bring them to
market to reduce the use of non-renewable resources.
The reason we have evolved from trading and distribution
to the life sciences group we are today,
has been our ability to adapt to changing
market needs and external environments.
Today, we see ourselves as the partners for our customers
in the industries we serve, and we take
pride in being one of Asia's most trusted brands.
We supply high-performing, sustainable products
that represent the best of what the market has to offer
and we supplement it with valuable technical advice
that demonstrates our commitment to innovation,
quality, and value.
Our success comes from our peoples' contribution at every level
and we strive to learn from each other.
Behn Meyer has four main business units.
The first one, Agricare, focuses on plant
health and fertilizers.
The second, Behn Meyer Ingredients,
comprises of animal nutrition and aquaculture;
food ingredients,
personal care and pharma.
The third business unit is Behn Meyer Performance Chemicals,
where we supply smart coatings to reduce
energy consumption in buildings, for example,
and we also focus on water treatment technology.
The last business unit that we have is called Behn Meyer Polymers,
where we introduce new materials and
additives to the automotive and medical sectors.
For many decades, we have been playing a very important role
in the local agriculture industries
by supplying good quality products together with
hands-on technical advice to the farmers.
Good agriculture practice by the farmers,
together with our environmentally friendly product,
will eventually lead to a sustainable ecosystem.
In this sense, the development of organic herbicide
in this field of agriculture will be very important,
where we believe that this product
will contribute to the sustainability of agriculture,
food security, and the ease of tackling problematic weeds.
We are now partnering with a few
black soldier fly farms in Malaysia,
whereby the larvae will feed on a
one hundred percent vegetable diet.
The frass, or the manual, will be collected,
sanitized,
and fortified with organic minerals and trace elements.
The final product will be able to rejuvenate
and revitalise the soil.
I started Intracare about nineteen years ago,
to believe that we are able to
avoid the overuse of antibiotics and pesticides.
So, we have our teams who are constantly busy
with looking on innovation.
We are, with one foot, standing in a farm,
or in a greenhouse, on the other hand,
with one foot we are standing in our laboratory
and in our R&D.
We know that antibiotics have been used extensively
and, of course, over-used in not only the human health sector,
but also in livestock production.
Now, the issue there is, of course,
a build-up of resistance in the future
and this threatens the efficacy
of treatments with antibiotics.
The main problem is, of course, producing
livestock without antibiotics is a serious
challenge to performance and efficiency.
So, we here at Behn Meyer Intracare
focus on providing solutions
for farmers and livestock producers to mitigate,
or to reduce their antibiotic use.
To give an idea, in the past there was
a lot of antibiotic spray used on animals.
When you are spraying this, around eighty-five percent
you are spraying inside the environment
and only fifteen percent is reaching the wound.
We create new medicines without
antibiotic spray which is straight on the wound
without any negative effect for the environment.
The future challenges we are facing with the livestock industry
we also see in our horticulture markets.
Farmers and growers are really used to cure diseases
when they appear, and farmers really got used to
just grabbing pesticides to cure diseases.
And worldwide, we used two-point-five million metric tonnes
of pesticides a year.
Which is enormous, and it's killing the biodiversity,
so it's killing a lot of bees.
At Intracare we believe that we have
to prevent diseases instead of curing them.
The Dutch made a commitment, they want to
produce twice as much food
with half of the resources.
We, as Dutch pioneers, believe that
we have to fulfil this as well.
One of our products is Intra EcoShield.
Intra EcoShield literally creates a stronger plant,
and this stronger plant is able to fight
against the diseases that it's facing.
As a producer we also have to do a lot of research,
and, in the cucumber botanical lab
as we call it ourselves, we are doing
a lot of research on the products that we develop.
We can enter a disease in there and see:
"Okay, is our product working, yes or no?"
We can also look at growth, or production, or those kind of things.
Taken together, all of our key businesses
are supported by dedicated centers of excellence
and that's a huge plus when it comes to product
development, and that is why Behn Meyer is
considered the leaders in these fields.
A good leader is defined by their vision.
We believe strongly
in empowering the next generation by giving them the guidance
and trust, so that they can grow to become
leaders in their own right.
Sustainability is not a fashion, it's a necessity
and, as a company, we are fully dedicated to it.
Our goal is to lead by example, and inspire others
to follow Behn Meyer's pathway towards
a sustainable future for all.
We know that there is still a lot that needs to be done,
but we pledge to be better every time
and we have a global team for corporate
sustainability to help follow through on our
commitments and ensure we
deliver tangible outcomes.
As long as we maintain our high level of teamwork,
and openness, we feel we are well prepared
for the challenges and the opportunities to come.