- Zentide is scaling up production with a new Lombok
- Regional expansion is under way, with commercial pilots in Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore
- It is developing a lower-cost product to entice farmers using subsidised fertilisers
Zentide received commercial approval for its flagship product, Kaylix, from the country’s ag ministry last year and has spent the past 10 months building its market presence across the archipelago.
“We’re about 10 months into commercialisation. We’re distributing across five provinces and work with about 15 select retailers,” founder and CEO Zachary Nice told AgNavigator.
The company said growing demand for the product has led it to begin construction of a new manufacturing facility in Lombok, Indonesia, while it simultaneously explores opportunities beyond its home market.
“Because of that commercial traction, we’ve decided to go ahead with constructing a new factory to increase capacity,” Nice said.
The new facility is expected to produce around 30,000 litres per month and will support Zentide’s ambitions to expand across Southeast Asia.
“We want to start expanding outside of Indonesia. We see ourselves as a multinational climate-tech company that happens to have started in Indonesia,” he said.
ASEAN expansion
Alongside growth in its home market, the company is also advancing commercial pilots in Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore as it evaluates new markets.
Nice highlighted Vietnam as a particular focus because of similarities between the agricultural challenges faced by both countries.
“There are similar issues in regards to overuse of chemical fertilisers and soil degradation. We’re seeing issues like salinity and coastal encroachment, very similar conditions to what we experience in Indonesia.”
The company is also considering Singapore as the location for a future research and development hub.
While Zentide initially found its strongest commercial traction in horticultural crops, it is increasingly targeting staple crops such as rice.
However, rice presents a different challenge because growers often have access to subsidised fertilisers.
To compete in that market, Zentide is developing a lower-cost product aimed at delivering more meaningful savings and creating a stronger incentive for farmers to reduce chemical fertiliser use.
The new offering was designed to deliver a similar reduction in chemical fertiliser use but at a lower price point, helping the company target growers who currently rely on subsidised fertilisers.
One of the benefits of Kaylix, according to Nice, is that farmers can reduce fertiliser application by around 25% while lowering overall input costs.
“We want that to be more pronounced. Especially rice farmers who are currently receiving subsidised fertiliser can see a significant decrease in input costs as well.”
The real challenge
Zentide’s growth comes as biological and climate-focused agricultural inputs continue to face the challenge of farmer adoption, particularly in markets where chemical fertilisers remain deeply entrenched.
Nice said the company deliberately developed its product to integrate into existing farming routines rather than requiring farmers to change their behaviour.
“We started off understanding that we had to come up with a product that fit into existing farmer behaviour so that we didn’t have too much of a challenge trying to educate a farmer on a new use of a product,” he said.
As a result, the main challenge has been convincing growers that they can reduce chemical fertiliser use without sacrificing productivity.
“The challenge is educating farmers on the ability to reduce their chemical fertiliser. A farmer’s primary concern is yield,” Nice said.
According to Nice, on-farm results have been encouraging.
“We’ve tested across 40 different crop types at this point, so it’s pretty agnostic in regard to the crops that it works with. Farmers are very happy. We’re getting repurchases across distributors all the way down to farmer level.”
