Mississauga, Ontario and Sacramento, California--(Newsfile Corp. - December 21, 2021) - Bee Vectoring Technologies International Inc. (CSE: BEE) (OTCQB: BEVVF) (CVE: BEE) (the "Company" or "BVT") is pleased to announce that its US sales is progressing as projected for the 2022 growing season. The sales plan is on track in the Southeast, with additional growth expected in more recently opened markets in other key growing regions.
Sales commitments in the Southeast, with two months in the selling season still to go, has already exceeded last year's total acres. BVT is still in discussions with customers representing several hundred potential new acres. High customer retention has also been confirmed in the Southeast, with 80% of growers from last year already confirmed to use BVT's natural precision agriculture system for the upcoming blueberry bloom period in February.
"The cost of inputs for growers has skyrocketed, and having customers reorder when they are cutting back in other areas shows how important BVT is to their operation. Many traditional chemical products have risen by as much as 40 percent over the last year," says Ian Collinson, Sales Manager at BVT.
"Our expansion in the US market is progressing on schedule in terms of sales growth and retention," added Mr. Collinson. "We've secured sales in the Southeast as a solid foundation, since their growing season starts first. The bulk of BVT's new sales growth will occur over the next three to four months, aligned with later growing seasons in the Northeast, Midwest, Pacific Northwest and California."
To help with growth in the newer regional markets, BVT is leveraging the powerful results from 2021 university and grower trials of BVT's bee vectoring system and Vectorite with CR-7 biological fungicide. Some trial results are already in and BVT has put them to immediate use in the sales process. These trials were conducted with respected agricultural academic institutions, including the University of California and North Dakota State University, as well as growers in Oregon and California.
"The trial data is rolling in, and we're all excited by how promising it is," says Ashish Malik, CEO of BVT. "We're seeing big benefits in real-world applications, with higher yields, bigger berries, higher quality crops, and reduced disease incidence and severity. This validates previous experience in specific crops and regions, and gives a major boost to our product proof so we can effectively present the BVT solution to even more growers."
Growers rely on trials conducted under their own local growing conditions when they're deciding on new technology: those trials are critical for market penetration and growth in individual regions.
These are some of the 2021 trial results available so far:
California strawberry trials with two major growers in Watsonville, California who grow for one of the world's largest berry companies (when BVT was added on top of the grower standard spray program)
- 25% and 32% greater yields
- 50% and 62% reductions in diseased fruit
- Reductions in culled fruit of 34% and 50% (culled fruit is fruit that is thrown away)
- Post-harvest data:
- Fruit treated with BVT was healthier: 13% and 17% lower Botrytis (gray mold) incidence
- The severity of Botrytis decreased by 12% and 45% (this is how much area of the fruit is infected)
The California strawberry grower trials were a proof-of-concept of the BVT system for this large berry company, in a market where bees are currently not being used for pollination, and demonstrated the economic benefit of the BVT system. One trial was done at an organic farm, and one at a conventional farm.
University of California conventional almond research trial in Central Valley, California (spray trial)
- CR-7 had over 80% efficacy in Monilinia laxa (brown rot blossom blight) disease control - the same level of control as leading chemical standards
- CR-7 outperformed five other biologicals for control of Botrytis cineria (jacket rot)
2021 was a very dry growing season in California's Central Valley and there was little disease on the almond orchards. The data collected from this 2021 Central Valley trial positively confirmed 2019 collected data: CR-7 sprayed produced the same control of Monilinia incidence as leading chemical standards; and CR-7 outperformed other biologicals for Botrytis control.
Conventional almond research trial in Madera County, California (bee vectoring of Vectorite with CR-7)
- 17-24% greater yield over two blueberry cultivars
- 5-6% increased flower retention
Conventional blueberry grower trial in Columbia River Basin, Oregon
- 16% average increase in berry size
- 43% more large (12mm+) berries
- Third-party packer reported higher yields over the grower standard (12mm+ sized berries)
Organic blueberry grower trial in western Oregon
- 90% reduction in Monilinia (mummy berry) disease with bee vectoring applied in 2021 compared to traditional methods used in 2020
- The section of the crop field with the lowest BVT treatment showed the highest disease incidence, but was still significantly lower than disease incidence in the previous year without bee vectoring used
- Fruit size is very large compared to past crops, especially first pick, with second pick also larger than expected
- Heavier fruit, with pallets weighting in at 1,100+ lbs.
"As a disruptive new technology, it's vital that BVT has strong, measurable third-party validation that helps customers make informed decisions," says Mr. Collinson. "We will be able to leverage this exciting data to drive sales growth in our new markets. It's a crucial tool for the BVT salesforce."
About Bee Vectoring Technologies International Inc
BVT, an agriculture technology company, is a market disruptor with a significant global market opportunity in the $240 billion crop protection and fertilizer market. BVT has pioneered a natural precision agriculture system that replaces chemical pesticides and wasteful plant protection product spray applications by delivering biological pesticide alternatives to crops using commercially grown bees. BVT's award-winning technology, precision vectoring, is completely harmless to bees and allows minute amounts of naturally-derived pesticides (called biologicals) to be delivered directly to blooms, providing improved crop protection and yield results than traditional chemical pesticides - and improving the health of the soil, the microbiome and the environment. Currently, BVT has over 65 granted patents, over 35 patents pending in all major agricultural countries worldwide, and has US EPA registration of its Vectorite with CR-7 (EPA Registration No. 90641-2) for sale as a registered biological fungicide for use on the labeled crops.
Additional information can be viewed at the Company's website www.beevt.com. To receive regular news updates from the Company, subscribe at www.beevt.com/newsletter.
Company Contact:
Ashish Malik, President & CEO
info@beevt.com
Investor Contact:
Babak Pedram, Investor Relations
Virtus Advisory Group
Tel: 416-995-8651
bpedram@virtusadvisory.com
The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. The CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Certain statements contained in this press release constitute "forward-looking information" as such term is defined in applicable Canadian securities legislation. The words "may", "would", "could", "should", "potential", "will", "seek", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" and similar expressions as they relate to the Company, "annual revenue potential", are intended to identify forward-looking information. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking information. Such statements reflect the Company's current views and intentions with respect to future events, and current information available to the Company, and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including: planted acres, selling price of competitive chemical pesticides and the US to Canadian dollar exchange rate. Material factors or assumptions were applied in providing forward-looking information. Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking information to vary from those described herein should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize. These factors include changes in law, competition, litigation, the ability to implement business strategies and pursue business opportunities, state of the capital markets, the availability of funds and resources to pursue operations, new technologies, the ability to protect intellectual property rights, the ability to obtain patent protection for products, third-party intellectual property infringement claims, regulatory changes affecting products, failing research and development activities, the ability to reach and sustain profitability, dependence on business and technical experts, the ability to effectively manage business operations and growth, issuance of debt, dilution of existing securities, volatility of publicly traded securities, potential conflicts of interest, unlikelihood of dividend payments, the potential costs stemming from defending third-party intellectual property infringement claims, the ability to secure relationships with manufacturers and purchasers, as well as general economic, market and business conditions, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in the Company's Filing Statement dated August 14,2020, filed with the CSE and securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com. Should any factor affect the Company in an unexpected manner, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, the actual results or events may differ materially from the results or events predicted. Any such forward-looking information is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Moreover, the Company does not assume responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such forward-looking information. The forward-looking information included in this press release is made as of the date of this press release and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable law. All figures are in Canadian dollars.
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