Newsfile Corp Mississauga, Ontario and Sacramento, California--(Newsfile Corp. - April 20, 2022) - Bee Vectoring Technologies International Inc. (CSE: BEE) (OTCQB: BEVVF) (CVE: BEE) (the "Company" or "BVT") is pleased to announce positive progress in 2022 sales commitments from US growers. In just seven months into the fiscal year, the Company has invoiced growers in the Southeast region and secured commitments in the Northeast, Midwest, and Pacific Northwest - already increasing total sales year-over-year by 18%. "We've already increased sales year-over-year and are committed to growing them even further before each region's blooming period," said Ian Collinson, Sales Manager at BVT. "This includes activity for additional acres that our Pacific Coast sales team is working aggressively to secure. This region is responsible for the production of one-third of all blueberries grown in the United States and we are in active discussions with some of the USA's largest berry growers. This, in the long run, represents a bigger opportunity for us compared to the Southeast." These positive results have been accomplished despite a very difficult farming environment in most regions. Volatile supply costs have seen fertilizer prices double over last year in several cases, and prices of fuel and other chemical products necessary to run farming operations have increased by up to 40%. "Farmers are being squeezed harder than ever and they have had to make tough choices on which products to invest in to help their crops thrive this year," said Ashish Malik, CEO of BVT. "Already achieving year-over-year sales increases for BVT, with several months still to go, is a testament to the strength and efficacy of our natural precision agriculture system and proprietary Clonostachys rosea CR-7 (CR-7) biological fungicide." Furthermore, in Georgia, the Company's largest market last year, growers faced severe weather and hard freezes during the blueberry bloom period and this has had an impact on BVT sales as several growers have unfortunately experienced a partial or complete crop loss. "Despite these extreme weather events, coupled with the dramatic rise in fertilizer, chemical and fuel costs, BVT has successfully retained the same level of sales year-over-year in Georgia," said Everett Hendrixon, BVT's Territory Manager for the US Southeast. "I have talked to my peers with other ag suppliers, and they are sharing the same stories about the difficult conditions for our grower clients. Some of them have lost significant quantity, meaning their sales orders are dramatically lower than the previous year." "Increasing share of planted acres in such a challenging environment, which can periodically occur in agricultural markets, means that increasingly, more growers are seeing the value in our technology. We look forward to continued growth in 2022 and are even more excited about BVT's opportunities in a more normalized business environment," continued Mr. Malik. |