Shareholder Letter from BVT CEO A Letter From Our CEO
July 30, 2021
Dear Friends of BVT,
I hope everyone is staying safe and enjoying the summer months. What seems like the never-ending battle with the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us how to be more flexible, resilient and compassionate as a society. The BVT team has been very busy navigating through these tough times, while making great progress on the business front. I would like to share a few points on the progress we have been making, starting with a reminder of where we are in the overall seasonality of our business and the crops we work with in North America.
In the US we are at the time of the year where we are focused on managing relationships with our growers and partners, and learning from what transpired during the growing season. Our sales season coincides with when the crops are blooming – and the range is from November (berries in Florida) till May (in the Pacific Northwest and Michigan) – which is why there has not been further news on that front beyond what was announced earlier. Right now, in some of the regions the growers are in the process of harvesting their crops. This a busy time for them, and after harvest they typically take time off from their farms to decompress. Our sales activities will pick back up in the September / October timeframe once the growers start planning the next crop season.
As a recap, we are very pleased with the commercialization progress that was made in the 2021 season over the 2020 season (our inaugural year for commercialization in the US). This year we opened six new crop/geographic markets, retained 100% of our customer base in Georgia (which is our largest market thus far) and added new customers in Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington – plus secured new trials in California where BVT just received regulatory approval in January; we now have 40+ invoiced customers. And all this was accomplished despite the COVID-related travel and access restrictions we all faced during much of 2020 and into 2021.
On geographic and product expansion, whilst the process and timelines with regulatory authorities are outside our control, we have completed the approval process for California, have made progress in Switzerland, Mexico, and have initiated the work needed for submissions in Canada and the EU. We are progressing discussions with partners about product access in-licensing arrangements, and exploring with other partners go-to-market strategies for us. I am cautiously optimistic that we will be able to complete at least one negotiation and announce a partnership soon. We have also initiated projects to develop our Clonostachys rosea CR-7 strain for more traditional application methods like foliar or soil applied, or even seed treatments where we already have interested partners.
Overall and in summary, operationally, things have never been stronger for the company – we are progressing as planned with our US commercialization, and with our expansion projects. Unfortunately, small-cap companies in general have taken a big valuation hit lately, and our recent share price reflects that impact. Therefore, in addition to continuing to execute our business plan, we are working hard to get the BVT story out and in front of a new audience, with the goal to make sure the share price can reflect the strong operational progress we are making. There will be some new initiatives on this front in the coming weeks and months.
On behalf of the entire team at BVT, we want to thank you for your support, and look forward to sharing further news with you as the business continues to progress.