Moving to the big time: sault pesticide company sold to Montreal buyer.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: Green Report

Sault Ste. Marie company BioForest Technologies, the maker of TreeAzin, a natural pesticide that destroys the emerald ash borer (EAB) beetle, has been sold to a larger company.

Last April, BioForest was acquired by Lallemand, a Montreal-based business that develops, produces and markets yeast, bacteria and specialty ingredients. The family-owned venture has products across sectors, including human and animal nutrition, pharma and health applications, and biofuels and distilled spirits.

With the sale, BioForest becomes the Lallemand's forestry unit within the company's plant division.

After 20 years building BioForest up from scratch, president Joe Meating said the merger is bittersweet. But the union with Lallemand serves as a kind of succession plan for the company, as Meating starts planning for his eventual retirement.

"They came knocking on our door, and the time was good," said Meating, a former forest insect control officer with the Canadian Forest Service (CFS). "We were growing very rapidly, we had good sales, and it just seemed to be a good fit for us and for them."

BioForest's focus remains pest management through nonchemical treatments, such as microbials, fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms.

Because Lallemand has operations in more than 25 countries, BioForest now has access to a wider breadth of research and development expertise, which Meating hopes to leverage for use in forestry.

"They have a number of products they had developed for crops --fruit and vegetables--that we think could have applications in forestry," he said. "So we're going to be doing some research to test them to see if they perform as well on trees as they do on tomatoes."

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Research remains a cornerstone of the company and a number of other projects are underway.

BioForest is sending one employee to complete the Master's level forest conservation program at the University of Toronto, and is additionally working with a Nipissing University student to look at how emerald ash borer is changing bird populations and species diversity.

Though that work moves beyond the scope of pest management, Meating said it's all connected.

"You've got to look at the big picture--it's not just trees dying," he said. "It's a whole canopy that's changing, which affects the birds and other insects and mammals."

Native to Asia, the emerald ash borer is an invasive species that targets ash trees. The beetle's larvae feed on the...