PRESS RELEASE

Cheshire-based International Pheromone Systems (IPS) has rebranded, launched a new website, moved premises and built a Pest Research Hub in less than two years.

Alongside these marketing activities, IPS has commissioned a PR company to raise its profile and increase understanding of the benefits of biocontrol as part of Integrated Pest Management.

IPS said it is also keen to promote the need to preserve biodiversity and prevent climate change, as actions to achieve one will usually help the other, alongside the need to farm in a more nature-friendly, biodiversity supporting way by reducing pesticide use.

Additional technical staff have been recruited and the team will focus on continuing ground-breaking work, with the help of funding from organisations such as Innovate UK, while improving existing products and building relationships with organisations such as Confor and LEAF as well as universities around the world.

IPS Managing Director Graeme Hartley said:

"We have put a lot of thought into how we communicate the ethos of our company.

"We decided that the words Innovation, Passion and Sustainability should be at the heart of everything we say and do.

"The biological control market is growing and is expected to expand further, by around 15% a year for the next five years.

"In the EU approximately half of all applications for approval for new active substances are for biological plant protection products.

"Alongside this, the demand for food produced without the use of chemicals is growing.

Initiatives like the EU’s Green Deal, the Farm to Fork and the Biodiversity Strategies envision significant reductions in chemical plant protection products.

"In 2020, the EU Commission proposed a 50% reduction in the use of pesticides by 2030, while France became the first EU country to target a halving as soon as 2025.

"Global pesticide application has steadily increased from 2.3 million tonnes in 1990 to 4.1 million tonnes in 2018, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.

"The use of pheromones for pest monitoring and control promises to become an ever more important component of the ongoing challenge to develop alternatives to synthetic chemical pesticides in order to solve their associated environmental and human health problems.

"Pests have been added to the list of anticipated impacts of climate change.

"With a longer growing season and a warmer climate, weeds and insect pests will proliferate, most likely leading to more pesticide use – which is itself responsible for harmful emissions that further exacerbate climate change."

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