The companies, which entered into an exclusive global marketing and distribution agreement in October 2012, have now received the first wave of approvals in Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and the UK.

They are expecting to gain more approvals across the EU and Latin America during the next 12 months, which will enable multiple product launches in 2020.

“This collaboration matches Syngenta’s global market strength in biocontrol and dedication to bring novel technologies to market with Novozymes’ deep knowledge of sustainable, biological solutions,” said Thomas Batchelor, Novozymes’ vice president of BioAg Commercial. “As the developer and producer of Taegro, we are really excited to see another microbial technology become available to farmers to help them sustainably combat crop diseases and avoid significant yield losses.”

Taegro, which is based on the naturally occurring Bacillus subtilis bacterium, is said to have broad spectrum potential to resist fungal diseases, such as powdery mildew and botrytis, across various fruit and vegetable crops.

The fungicide’s application is expected to be expanded to a wider portfolio of broad-acre crops such as wheat, soy and corn.