Company background and philosophy

ABiTEP GmbH is succeeding FZB Biotechnik GmbH which has a long standing tradition in developing innovative biotechnical products. Development of bioformulations based on plant growth promoting bacilli has been started by FZB more than 25 years ago.

One example is Bacillus subtilis FZB24® - today the most popular agent for plant strengthening on the German market and now successfully applied in many countries in Europe, Asia, and North- and South America.

ABiTEP GmbH is permanently endeavouring, together with its scientific partner institutions, to develop a novel generation of improved products aimed to enhance yield, product quality and simultaneously to substitute or to reduce use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture.

Milestones of development

• 1984: start of development of plant growth promoting agents in collaboration with the former Section Microbiology/Phytomedicine at Humboldt Universität Berlin (Professor H. Bochow) and the Stadtgut Gartenbau Berlin
• 1990: continuing research in cooperation with Schering AG, registration of the Bacillus subtilis strain T99
• 1994: research and distribution in cooperation with Bayer AG
• 1999: start of distribution of FZB24 ® in Germany, Austria and Switzerland by Bayer Vital GmbH
• 2000: named TAEGRO®, FZB24 ® is certified for use in the USA for both indoor and outdoor applications und becomes listed by the EPA (EPA-No. 72098-5)
• 2005: ABiTEP GmbH has been founded by Dr. H. Junge, P. Beifort and Prof. Dr. R. Borriss
• 2005: Introduction of RhizoVital® 42 (Bacillus amyloliquefaciens FZB42) as a novel plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) preferential applicable in potato and vegetable farming.
• 2007: Due to the efforts of scientists from Humboldt Universität Berlin (Prof. Dr. R. Borriss) and Göttingen Genome Laboratory (Prof. Dr. G. Gottschalk) the first genome sequence of a Gram-positive plant growth promoting bacterium, the ABiTEP production strain FZB24, became available.

Strains are listed in the German Strain-Collection of Microorganism and Cellcultures DSMZ (Deutsche Stammsammlung für Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen), Braunschweig.

All products of ABiTEP GmbH are registered trademarks of FZB Biotechnik GmbH and ABiTEP GmbH.