BIOTROP has placed its two North American businesses under a single general manager and given him a target of more than $260 million in regional revenue by 2034.
Andre Cerignoni took over as general manager of BIOTROP North America in August, a newly created role overseeing both BioWorks, the Victor, N.Y.-based supplier to greenhouse and specialty crop growers, and BIOTROP USA, the company’s row-crop unit. He reports to Jonas Hipolito, president of BIOTROP, the biological solutions division of BioFirst Group.
Cerignoni joins from Koppert, where he served as marketing and commercial manager for the United States, based in Indiana. He spent more than a decade with Koppert in Brazil before that, ending as marketing and commercial manager for the Brazilian market. He holds an MBA in agriculture from the University of São Paulo and an MBA in supply chain management from Fundação Getulio Vargas.
For retailers, little changes in the short term
BioWorks and BIOTROP USA will continue to operate as separate organizations under the new platform, each keeping its own brand, crop focus and route to market. BioWorks stays in greenhouse horticulture, ornamentals and specialty crops. BIOTROP USA stays in broad-acre row crops — soybeans, corn, wheat, cotton and peanuts.
“The objective is not to make both companies identical,” Cerignoni said. “The objective is to create more value together than either could create alone.”
What the two businesses will share are the functions where scale matters: regulatory affairs, market intelligence, agronomic development, product launch governance and customer success. That is the piece worth watching from the retail side, because those functions determine how quickly new biologicals clear registration and reach the shelf.
The math behind the target
The revenue goal is aggressive relative to where the two businesses sit today. BioWorks is working toward $100 million by 2034 on its own, which implies roughly $160 million from the row-crop side of the platform. BIOTROP USA, built from the ground up under Matheus Gueratto, currently has 13 products registered with U.S. authorities and a commercial presence across 23 states, concentrated in the Corn Belt.
The combined $260 million North America target also exceeds BIOTROP’s current global revenue, which the company puts at more than $200 million across Brazil, Latin America, the United States and Europe with roughly 950 employees. Parent BioFirst Group — which also owns Biobest — reports more than $580 million in annual revenue and describes itself as the largest pure-play biologicals group in the world.
Chris Rose, with BioWorks since 2013, led the company through its 2026 leadership transition and continues to run the specialty and horticulture side of the business. BioWorks is a founding member of the Biological Products Industry Alliance.
“Andre has exactly the profile this moment demands — deep market knowledge, commercial execution capability, and experience building teams across hemispheres,” Hipolito said. “He inherits a strong foundation built by Chris Rose at BioWorks and Matheus Gueratto at BIOTROP USA.”
What lands in November
Cerignoni’s first 90 days are a discovery phase — meetings with employees, customers, distributors and partners across both organizations. By day 90, roughly early November, he is due to deliver an integrated North America strategy that includes a platform operating model, a BioWorks/BIOTROP integration roadmap and a set of performance metrics tied to the revenue target.
That document, more than the appointment itself, is where decisions about channel structure, territory and product launch sequencing will be made.
