Tools for the trade: The international business of SIT

Full text: The technology associated with the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) has been developed primarily by United Nations agencies and national Governments. Sterile insect production has also come from these sources, with the overwhelming majority of production at Government facilities. With the rising demand for SIT, Government production facilities have sold sterile insects to other Governments to use in their own programmes. This trend, along with the new private production sector and private markets, necessitates a more commercial approach. Managers of production facilities will need to account for capital (e.g. construction) or possibly other fixed costs on top of the direct (variable) costs such as diet and transport. A recent project with the Joint FAO/IAEA Programme of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture and the IAEA Technical Cooperation Department, highlighted the impact of the biological nature of the product on methods for calculating operational costs and possible liabilities and losses. In this Model Business Plan, we produced a model-spread sheet for managers to evaluate various options in the context of their specific location and potential markets. In addition to issues on costing and pricing, protection of intellectual property for innovations in the sterile insect production process becomes a challenge with increased commercialisation. Progress has been made since the Model Business Plan report in the area of harmonisation of regulation of international transport. The Sterile Insect Technique is supported by the inclusion of this pest control method in the extensive revision of the International Standard on Phytosanitary Measures (ISPM) No. 3, formerly the FAO Code of Conduct for Biological Control Organisms. (author)