Bee Vectoring wins order with U.S. blueberry grower
2023-05-24 08:43 ET - News Release
Mr. Ashish Malik reports
BEE VECTORING TECHNOLOGIES RECEIVES LARGEST ORDER TO DATE FROM A MAJOR MULTI-STATE BERRY GROWER IN THE UNITED STATES
Bee Vectoring Technologies International Inc. (BVT) has received a company-record-breaking sales order with one of the largest blueberry growers in the United States, which will integrate BVT's proprietary Vectorite with CR-7 (Clonostachys rosea CR-7) biological fungicide and natural precision agriculture system on its blueberry operations in the coming growing season in the Pacific Northwest.
"This new customer is an enterprise-sized grower with large-scale operations in multiple key growing regions and will be implementing the BVT system on over 500 acres of their operations spread across Washington and Oregon," said Ian Collinson, sales manager at BVT. "This significant development is a strong indication of the growing confidence growers have in the BVT system as most growers historically have tested with small acreages first before committing to such a large portion of their operations."
After this initial growing season with the customer, BVT will have the opportunity to gain further acreage in Oregon and extend the relationship into California, where the grower has significant acreage as well.
"This landmark-sized order is yet another example of the growing momentum that's building for BVT in the Pacific Northwest region as we recently announced another large customer engagement as well as collaborations with an alliance of major distributors to continue to expand BVT's product offerings. We are making tremendous strides in the Pacific Northwest, which holds significant growth potential for BVT given that Washington rivals Georgia as the state with the largest blueberry acreage, as well as Oregon, which ranks fourth after third place Michigan," continued Mr. Collinson.
The grower has been closely monitoring BVT trial results in the Pacific Northwest over the 2022 growing season, which experienced one of the worst disease incidences in recent years.
Data collected from sales and demos with large-scale growers in the Pacific Northwest in 2022 verify that the BVT system, when combined with grower standard sprays, or when used to replace some of the sprays, is highly effective in suppressing Monilinia (mummy berry) disease -- which is the major fungal disease in the region for blueberry crops -- and thus improving the quality of the crop yield and, ultimately, the grower's return on investment (ROI). Sites treated by BVT had an average disease incidence of just 1.37 per cent, which comparatively was a very low disease rating by industry standards, especially in such a high-disease-incidence year. For example, prior to using BVT, one of the growers in this region had very high disease pressure -- measuring a 40-per-cent disease incidence on its farm, and, through the BVT treatment system, the grower was able to exponentially lower the crop's disease incidence and hence materially increasing its ROI (return on investment).
These data also confirm that berries treated by BVT were consistently larger and heavier than with sole use of the grower standard spray program, with berries treated by BVT being on average 7.3 per cent larger and 26.67 per cent heavier. Since crops are priced based on weight and size, this also translates into higher overall ROI for growers.
"The customer assessed the trial data and was thoroughly impressed with the BVT system's performance for disease management," said Ryan Dragoo, Pacific Northwest territory manager at BVT. "The strong trial results, coupled with their mandate to adopt new technology and different modes of action for combating fungal disease (beyond standard spraying), clearly showed them the value proposition BVT offers for their crops."
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 U.S. EPA (Environment Protection Agency) registration of its Vectorite with CR-7 (EPA registration No. 90641-2) for sale as a registered biological fungicide for use on the labelled crops.
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