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Much like the United States, countries across Latin America are major producers of crops that feed the world. Since 2017, St. Louis leaders have been forging relationships with agtech partners in Latin America in partnership with The Yield Lab Latam. These efforts expanded in 2023 with the launch of Cultivar STL, an initiative designed to boost the economic success of startups, investors, corporations, and ecosystems in both St. Louis and Latin America.
The Cultivar initiative has engaged more than 90 participants and 63 organizations from 10 countries, demonstrating significant progress toward strengthening and sustaining partnerships that contribute to economic growth and food security in St. Louis and Latin America.
Cultivar has brought together a diverse range of collaborations, focusing on joint research projects, academic exchanges, workshops and training activities. These activities enhance research capacity, facilitate knowledge exchange and improve project outcomes.
In August, a regional delegation with representatives from the Danforth Center, BioSTL, World Trade Center St. Louis and GeoFutures, an initiative of Greater St. Louis, Inc., traveled to Argentina for the second Cultivar gathering to engage with innovators, farmers, investors, academics and industry leaders.
Danforth Center Executive Director of Innovation Partnerships Stephanie Regagnon, and Andy Dearing, leader of the region’s GeoFutures initiative, met with Rio Cuarto officials. They toured Argentina's first bioethanol plant, Bio4, and visited the headquarters of Seed Matriz (a St. Louis Arch Grant company with core facility agreements in place with the Danforth Center) discussing efforts to build an agtech ecosystem modeled after 39 North. The day concluded at SALA, the largest John Deere dealership in Argentina, where they met with Santiago Lovera, SALA CEO and heard presentations from regional agtech innovators.
Sean Mullins, director of Foreign Direct Investment at the World Trade Center St. Louis, Isabel Acevedo, manager Community Innovation and Karla Roeber, VP of Public and Government Affairs at the Danforth Center traveled to Rosario, St. Louis’s sister city.
The group toured Polo Tecnológico, a scientific and technological park. More than 120 partner companies, together with municipal and provincial governments and the National University of Rosario and the National Technological University, work together to continue to boost the knowledge economy in the region. Part of the tour included a visit to the Biohueris, an agtech startup working to develop herbicide resistant crops that also has a presence in 39 North.
Afterward, they toured the Rosario Board of Trade and heard pitches from Universidad Austral MBA students working with startups.
The full Cultivar delegation headed to Buenos Aires with a stop at La Oración farm, meeting with Cesar Belloso, a key investor of The Yield Lab Latam. Belloso and his family have adopted sustainable practices and production systems that regenerate soils with lower environmental impact.
In Buenos Aires the St. Louis delegation attended the Aapresid Congress. Aapresid is a network of producers that promote sustainable food, fiber and energy production systems through innovation, science and networked knowledge management. The Aapresid Congress is their annual international event that has been connecting innovation, technology and knowledge for more than three decades, aiming to promote increasingly sustainable productive systems. More than 10,000 people participated in the three-day Congress.
The St. Louis ecosystem was featured on three panels:
The Yield Lab Latam organized several meetings for Cultivar stakeholders, including a half-day session hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at Palacio San Martin with a panel discussion: Argentina and the Regional Agtech Innovation Ecosystems that featured Chad Zimmerman, Agrifood Director at BioSTL.
Galica Ventures, in partnership with the Yield Lab Latam and the Universidad Austral, hosted a session – Innovation Ecosystems in the Argentine Agribusiness – at Torre de Galica.
Regagnon, Roeber, Mullins and Tomas Peña, managing director of the Yield Lab Latam met with Eric Olson, Regional Senior Commercial Officer and Elizabet Simon, Agribusiness Commercial Specialist at the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires to brief them on the Danforth Center, St. Louis agtech ecosystem and the history and impact of the Cultivar initiative.
After the visit, the St. Louis ecosystem was able to return the hospitality to Belloso who brought a group of farmers from Argentina’s Pergamino-Colón region to St. Louis with an agenda focused on soil and no-till production systems, AI and generative models, and disruptive technologies for row crop production. The region also welcomed MBA in Agribusiness students and faculty from Universidad Austral Rosario as part of their 2024 international residency experience. Their visit coincided with a group from Purdue University, who has collaborated with Universidad Austral, an unexpected reunion that underscored the global connections being built.
Danforth Center also welcomed a group of 75 farmers from Brazil as part of their visit to the United States for Farm Progress—demonstrating the region’s growing reputation as a global hub for agtech.
