Miami, FL, April 06, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Save Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: SVFD) (FSE:80W) (“Save Foods” or the “Company”), an agri-food tech company specializing in eco crop protection that helps to reduce food waste and ensure food safety, published a letter to its stockholders from CEO David Palach.
Dear Stockholders:
We achieved multiple significant milestones in 2021, successfully transitioning Save Foods from a research and development focused organization to a commercial enterprise, fueled by the transformational May 2021 listing of our common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market through an initial public offering that raised gross proceeds of $12 million. Even though we were an R&D focused company for much of 2021, and despite ongoing travel impacts related to COVID-19, I am pleased to report our team delivered 89 percent revenue growth over 2020.
With the capital in place to begin executing our vision in earnest, we embarked on an ambitious agenda in the second half of the year to accelerate our penetration into key markets and fortify our foundation for long-term growth. As part of that foundation, we completed the build-out of Save Foods Ltd.’s new headquarters and R&D center in Neve Yarak, Israel, providing ample room for our growing team to perform as we scale our operations in the fiscal quarters ahead. This facility completements our growing global network of agents in Mexico, Turkey, Egypt, South Africa, and Peru.
A key goal of our post-offering operational plan was to expand the application of our treatment solutions beyond the citrus fruits we initially targeted, and we did a remarkable job in this regard, ending the year with pilot and commercial programs demonstrating success protecting bell peppers, avocados, and dates. We have continued to broaden our commercial protocols in the last six months, with successful pilots on mangos, pears and most recently berries (raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries). As the type of produce we protect continues to expand, the potential sales volatility from the seasonality of various crops is greatly minimized.
In addition, over the last couple of years, our products were tested to evaluate the efficacy and impact of pre-harvest treatments on the quality of citrus fruit varieties. These studies, conducted by Dr. Adaskaveg, Professor at the Microbiology and Plant Pathology Department at the University of California, Riverside, suggested that the shelf life of citrus fruits can be significantly improved when treated with Save Foods’ products prior to harvest. The study included four varieties of citrus fruits including the “Valencia” orange. The study demonstrated that nine days after harvest, Save Foods’ treatment reduced the incidence of decay (waste) by more than 75%.
Fresh produce treated with our treatments can be found on shelves of supermarket chains across the US and Europe where it has been reported to reduce rotten fruit at the retail level by 50 percent on average. With no need for additional steps or special equipment, our treatments are easy to implement and come in versatile applications suitable to the different stakeholders along the supply chain.
Our pilot programs are an integral component of our early growth strategy as we continue to seek to transform a well-established and traditional industry. Of the pilot programs we launched in 2021, 100 percent were converted into paying customers, and we believe we will continue this trend moving forward as we further prove our ability to have a material impact on reducing food waste and ensuring food safety. The number of pilot programs has increased five-fold since the fourth quarter of 2021, with more than twenty now underway.
To further accelerate the commercialization of our game-changing post-harvest treatment solutions, we are targeting several key exporting countries that together produce annually more than 300 million tons of the produce we have selected as our first market opportunity (avocado, mango, citrus, apples, pears, bananas, berries, papaya, bell pepper, lettuce and tomatoes). We have also identified leading retailers that are publicly committed to reducing waste and have already begun working with three major North American retailers.
Another area with rapid growth potential is in the organic space. The organics market lacks an effective solution currently, and we believe we can generate significant new business in this market once our OMRI certification is finalized.
We are helping growers, packers, and food retailers to minimize waste, maximize supply chain efficiencies, increase their revenues, and extend their market reach while delivering superior quality fruits and vegetables, and in doing so, we believe we can create significant shareholder value.
We are just getting started in this exciting and massive market opportunity, and I look forward to sharing our continued successes with you as we execute on our mission of reducing food waste and ensuring food safety.
Sincerely,
David Palach, CEO
About Save Foods:
Save Foods is an innovative, dynamic company addressing two of the most significant challenges in the agri-food tech industry: food waste and loss and food safety. We are dedicated to delivering integrated solutions for improved safety, freshness and quality, every step of the way from field to fork. Collaborating closely with our customers, we develop new solutions that benefit the entire supply chain and improve the safety and quality of life of both the workers and the consumers alike. Our initial applications are in post-harvest treatments in fruit and vegetable packing houses processing produce including citrus, avocado, pears, apples and mangos.
By controlling and preventing pathogen contamination and significantly reducing the use of hazardous chemicals and their residues, Save Foods treatment not only prolong fresh produce shelf life and reduce food loss and waste, but they also ensure a safe, natural, and healthy product.
For more information visit our website: SAVE FOODS – SAVE FOODS
Forward-looking Statements:
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other Federal securities laws. Words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “estimates” and similar expressions or variations of such words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. For example, we are using forward-looking statements in this press release when we discuss, among other things, the acceleration of our penetration into key markets and fortification of our foundation for long-term growth, the ability of our solutions to reduce potential sales volatility from the seasonality of various crops; that fresh produce treated with our solutions can be found at supermarket chains across the US and Europe; and the likelihood that we will receive OMRI certification and our ability to generate significant new business in this market. Because such statements deal with future events and are based on our current expectations, they are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those described in or implied by the statements in this press release. The forward-looking statements contained or implied in this press release are subject to other risks and uncertainties, including market conditions and the satisfaction of all conditions to, and the closing of, the offering, as well as those discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” in Save Foods’ annual report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 31, 2022, and in any subsequent filings with the SEC. Except as otherwise required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. References and links to websites have been provided as a convenience, and the information contained on such websites is not incorporated by reference into this press release. We are not responsible for the contents of third-party websites.
Media Contact:
IR@savefoods.co
US Investor Relations:
Dave Gentry
RedChip Companies Inc.
1-800-RED-CHIP (733-2447)
Or 407-491-4498
SVFD@redchip.com
German Investor Relations:
Dr Eva Reuter
e.reuter@dr-reuter.eu
