Ginkgo and Agricen complete fermentation collaboration for soil biologicals

Ginkgo Bioworks and Agricen said they have completed an initial collaboration to develop a low-cost fermentation process for complex bacterial strains used in one of Agricen’s soil amendment products, a move that could speed adoption of biological crop inputs.

The work allowed Agricen to outsource a technically demanding stage of production that it would normally handle in-house, freeing internal resources for product development. The optimized process is expected to enable faster, more efficient production of microbial components already used in its portfolio.

“Ginkgo’s approach brought an efficiency for developing a custom fermentation process that we didn’t see with other toll producers,” said Michael Totora, Agricen’s president and chief executive. “It gives us more time to advance solutions in our pipeline and deliver novel biological crop nutrition products to our global partners.”

The project highlights a core part of Ginkgo’s agriculture strategy: providing process development and optimization services to companies facing bottlenecks in scaling microbial products. The Boston-based company’s platform supports fermentation from early-stage screening through small commercial volumes.

“Optimizing production processes is often where promising biological products struggle to scale,” said Michael Miille, general manager of Ginkgo’s agriculture business unit. “Our work with Agricen shows how platform-based process development can shorten timelines at later stages of commercialization.”

Growers are increasingly adopting biological inputs to improve yields, nutrient uptake, and stress tolerance while maintaining soil health. The collaboration illustrates how specialized fermentation expertise can reduce costs and complexity, helping agriculture companies bring biological products to market more efficiently.

Agricen, based in Plano, Texas, has spent more than two decades developing biochemical and biological solutions aimed at improving soil nutrient availability and plant resilience. Ginkgo, publicly listed in the US, offers R&D and process optimization services for agricultural biologicals among other synthetic biology businesses.