10090148Pheromone Pest Management Development for Monitoring and Control of PestsClosedInvestment AcceleratorInnovate UKPheroSyn is developing sustainable pheromone-based solutions to secure the future of our global food supply. Every year, global food production losses from pests and diseases amount to about £182bn, of which about £4bn occurs in the UK. The solution has always been to spray the fields with pesticides. Certainly, these agrochemicals have had their use in protecting the global food supply, but that has come at a considerable cost to biodiversity and the natural habitat in soils, waterways, and the air that we breathe. We now know that pesticides indiscriminately kill large numbers of insects, including beneficial insects and pollinators. There is resistance in the pest population to certain pesticides and older generation pesticides can persist in soils for up to years. We see significant health issues associated with pesticide use (e.g. some cancers, endocrine disorders, reproductive issues), and globally we have an over-reliance on pesticides. Regulations are being introduced around the world, including the EU ban on neonicotinoids (EU 2018/783-5), and the Farm to Fork Strategy, a key component of the EU Green Deal which seeks to decrease the use of pesticides by 50% by 2030\. Pheromones provide a safe, sustainable alternative to pesticides, with a vastly reduced environmental footprint. These are chemical scents released by pests and insects usually for the purpose of communication. They are species-specific, meaning we can target key pests without destroying non-target pests, and beneficial insects such as pollinators. There appears to be no resistance, no persistence in soils (these are volatile compounds, and so are deployed into the air), and they are effective at low concentrations (e.g. nano-molar). The market is growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13%, set to rise to 25% in coming years to reach $7.1B by 2027, and this contrasts with the pesticide market which is growing at 2-5%. PheroSyn has developed high-value, unavailable pheromones for targets our competitors cannot produce (e.g. midges). Our core competence in synthetic chemistry provides a technology platform for many similar structured, unavailable pheromones. As CEO of PheroSyn, I am delighted to lead such a talented team of scientists with a shared vision of the future. Employing pheromones as exceptionally targeted commercial products we can manage the natural pest populations and produce good quality food, free of pests and diseases, moving ever closer to pesticide free farm management practices.