ZAZACORONA

The COVID-19 pandemic that disrupted world economies opened the way for Zagro to innovate, building on their existing expertise and banking on their decades of experience in delivering quality products and services in the agriculture industry.

When the world was fighting a viral disease capable of shutting down cities and countries, the public mostly had anti-microbial cleaning products available at their local supermarkets to protect their homes and workplaces. This gap in the market motivated Zagro to step up and develop an anti-virus solution that’s better formulated in killing coronaviruses.

From their headquarters in Singapore, Zagro was quick to see how they could fill this gap. Planning for the development and launch of a new household virucide only took a couple of days. Following the National Environment Agency’s recommended active ingredients and their corresponding concentration, Zagro developed Zazacorona using the ingredients readily available to them, which was supposed to be used for their flagship disinfectant, Ultraxide.

For the next two weeks, Zagro Singapore quickly responded to the increasing demand for a disinfectant against coronaviruses. Over one weekend, the production team raced against time to produce 732.5 litres of the anti-virus disinfectant, while the marketing team utilized all tools at their disposal to promote the launch and sale of Zazacorona at their Woodlands office in February 2020.

The sales and marketing team also reached out not just to end consumers but also to businesses, still playing to the company’s strengths. They also managed to start selling Zazacorona at NTUC Fairprice outlets, Singapore’s largest supermarket chain, and further propelling the brand in the local market. By the end of the second week, Zazacorona was already listed on the government agency’s list of products against the disinfection of COVID-19.

For the succeeding weeks, Zagro juggled promoting the Zazacorona anti-virus disinfectant locally and bringing Zazacorona overseas, finding and attracting distributors that can import the product and sell in their respective local markets. Taking into consideration how the B2C market works, Zagro also accepted the challenge to adapt to consumer demands by selling online themselves, building and launching an ecommerce store in Singapore and Malaysia.

Other big retailers in Singapore such as Watsons and Guardian have also started selling Zazacorona. And to date, Zagro has already exported Zazazcorona to Cambodia, Kenya, Dubai, Maldives, Bangladesh, Bahrain, and Malaysia, with more countries just waiting for import permits to be granted or for the economy to reopen.

In just 100 days, Zagro managed to develop a high performing virucide that’s now commercially available in Singapore and exported to more than seven countries.

With its strong background in biosecurity, Zagro moves from animal sciences to human sciences by using its expertise in fighting viruses in animals to develop public health products to combat the spread of virus infection in humans.

While Zagro has managed to find an opportunity in adversity, the challenge now is to further establish the product brand for a long term, leading to a project that will launch a new range of disinfectants that will be commercially available.