Evofuel, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Israeli biotechnology company Evogene, has submitted its EFV712 castor variety for approval in Argentina. This would represent the company’s expansion of its castor activities into Argentina, and follows a 2015 agreement with the Brazilian company Insolo Agroindustrial for the selection and optimisation of its proprietary castor bean varieties in Insolo farms located in Piaui state in northeast Brazil. Castor could potentially be cultivated as an alternative to soybean in semi-arid regions of Argentina. A new mechanical harvester specifically intended for castor has been developed by a consortium of Evofuel and the Italian machinery producer Fantini, together with Castor Oil Argentina, a company created to introduce castor as an extensive crop in the country, and BioFields SAPI de CV, a Mexican company involved in castor-based bio-products. In addition, Evofuel is currently researching castor disease control practices in collaboration with Embrapa. Castor Oil Argentina and BioFields intend to commence semi-commercial scale field trials of castor crops in the coming months.