Mississauga, Ontario and Sacramento, California--(Newsfile Corp. - January 24, 2023) - Bee Vectoring Technologies International Inc. (CSE: BEE) (OTCQB: BEVVF) (CVE: BEE) (the "Company" or "BVT") is pleased to announce its first blueberry order in California. The Fresno-based customer will be using BVT's proprietary Vectorite with CR-7 (Clonostachys rosea CR-7) biological fungicide and natural precision agriculture system on their blueberry crops and has also committed to a demonstration trial on their cherry orchards.
"This order is another clear demonstration that our strong customer base continues to actively experience significant improvement in yield and quality of their crops as a result of using the BVT system and are happy to recommend us to other growers," said Ian Collinson, Sales Manager at BVT. "The grower's decision to extend the BVT system's use from blueberries to stone fruit is an exciting opportunity for us to further scale our business not only through increasing acreage with existing customers, but also to diversify our crops coverage, which significantly increases our overall addressable market."
This newest customer was made aware of BVT's effectiveness through contacts in Oregon who use the BVT system. The customer's goals are to improve fruit quality, increase yield and better manage disease. Expanding the use of BVT's system from blueberries to cherries will be highly efficient with almost no additional time or labor required since the cherry bloom will transition with the end of the blueberry bloom.
The opportunity for BVT in California is significant. The state is the country's largest berry market: an estimated 55,000 acres of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries make up 30% of all American berry acreage.(1)
As a 100% organic product that is naturally delivered, the BVT system dovetails perfectly into the California market, controlling disease and increasing yield while being exempt from key residue testing requirements.
The United States is also the world's second-largest cherry producer, second only to Turkey.(2) Cherries utilize the most acreage of all stone fruits with an estimated 85,000 acres.(3) Washington, California and Oregon grow almost 90% of the total yield.
Firmness and quality are very important in berries and stone fruits, especially for the export market, where growers can garner much higher prices than they can domestically. An estimated US$502.9 million worth of cherries (66,960 metric tons) are exported every year.(4)
(1) Source: USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service
(2) Source: FAOSTAT, 2013
(3) Source: 2020 National Ag Statistical Service (NASS)
(4) Source: The Packer, May 26, 2021, "US cherry exports rise in value, fall in volume"
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.
BVT Company Contact:
Ashish Malik, President & CEO, BVT
info@beevt.com
BVT Investor Contacts:
Babak Pedram (Canada & International)
Virtus Advisory Group
Tel: 416-995-8651
bpedram@virtusadvisory.com
William Maze (United States)
RB Milestone Group LLC (RBMG)
bee@rbmilestone.com