Imagine a world where crop yields are always thriving. Imagine a world where disease and pests are managed with a completely natural innovative solution. Imagine a world where a nature takes care of healthy, thriving crops. Well, that world and those solutions are not as far away as you may think.
Forward-thinking agritech Company
Bee Vectoring Technologies International Inc. (BEE) (
TSX-V: BEE,
OTC: BEVVF,
Forum) has created a proprietary solution for the control of pests and enhancement of crops and ornamentals by biological controls in a variety of application processes, including natural precision agriculture. The company has developed and owns patent-pending bee vectoring technology that is designed to
harmlessly utilize commercially reared bumblebees and honeybees as natural delivery mechanisms for a variety of powdered mixtures comprised of organic compounds that inhibit or eliminate common crop diseases.
The BVT system can be effective on a wide range of crops visited by bees. The top crops the company focuses on include:
Many other crops share the same diseases and pests as these top crops and BVT is looking forward to expanding into other crops, including:
- cucurbits (cucumbers, marrows, zucchini, melons, squash and pumpkin)
- stone fruits (cherries, peaches and apricots)
- almonds
- pears
- kiwi
- peppers
- eggplants
BVT is an agriculture technology company that is making a difference in the future of sustainable fruit & vegetable cultivation and production. And the company has been as busy as (pardon the pun) a bee. In mid-June, it announced that it
had signed three new deals with blueberry growers in Michigan, who will use the Company’s natural precision agriculture system in this current growing season.
In an insightful conversation with Stockhouse Editorial, BVT’s CEO, Ashish Malik, explained that these new deals send a clear signal about the Company’s opportunities.
SH: Ashish, in a nutshell, what is natural precision agriculture?
AM: By 2050 there will be 10 billion people on earth: two billion more than today. This has many implications, including that we need to produce a lot more food. But arable land is decreasing, and increasing deforestation or other damaging environmental practices is not the solution. A better option is to increase the productivity of the farmland that is already available: over the next 30 years, we need to double what each acre of farmland can produce.
How can we do that in an environmentally responsible way? That's where Bee Vectoring Technologies (BVT) comes in with a natural precision agriculture system that combines the precision of bees and the natural power of biologicals. BVT and its proprietary technology is poised to help transform the planet's food production system.
SH: How does natural precision agriculture contribute to sustainable agriculture?
AM: At BVT, sustainability is at the heart of what we do. Our natural precision agriculture technology is a key enabler of the next green agriculture revolution. Using the natural pollination process of commercially-reared bees, our system delivers biological products directly to the flowers of crops in a way that doesn't harm the environment - it actually supports and nourishes it.
Biological products are natural alternatives to chemicals; they allow farmers to use fewer harmful pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. And using commercially-reared bees to deliver these biological products means farmers use less product and less water because they're able to deliver the crop treatments in such a highly targeted way. Rather than spraying an entire field and ending up with chemical overspray in the areas between rows of crops or in waterways, BVT's technology gets the biological product exactly where it needs to go, naturally.
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SH: Can you explain how BVT is changing the way farmers grow their crops?
BVT is improving agricultural productivity in a way that uses less water and isn't harmful to soil, bees, animals or people. This is our unique position in the marketplace: we are the world's only natural precision agriculture company, and we're poised to lead the new green revolution and the food system transformation that are so vital to our survival in the coming years.
The sustainable agriculture movement is gaining momentum worldwide. The Bayer interview at the 2020 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos about feeding the world without starving the planet is a great example of the growing conversation. Subsequently, Liam Condon at Bayer followed up his interview with this blog on Davos. It is very heartening to see industry leaders like Bayer advocating for sustainability.
We recently repositioned BVT as the only “natural precision agriculture” company. This repositioning has been very well-received by the industry, media and investors; we’ve appeared in over 30 news stories since September 2019.
SH: It looks like there's never been a better time to invest in AgTech as a hot investment opportunity. Can you explain why?
AM: BVT is an undervalued company with a market-changing approach. We're growing fast, hitting our milestones and moving into more markets with each growing season. BVT has changed a lot since we opened our doors more than eight years ago. And that change has come from us hitting our most significant milestone to date: late last summer, we got our first regulatory approval from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States. Now that we've achieved that vital step, we've begun the next important phase in our growth: commercialization. This new phase is about generating sales and demand with growers – and we’ve done that in our first growing season since EPA approval with commercial grower details in key growing regions across the US.
SH: Can you tell our investor audience how you’re building a complete global presence?
AM: We’ve already started the early work on expansion into Europe: we've set up an office there, opened up an R&D center in Switzerland, and our registration dossier is currently under review by the Swiss authorities. Soon we'll look at broader European expansion registration, possibly even later this year. Mexico is also on the horizon: we will be submitting to that market next. It may take us three or four years to get all of these registrations, but once they're in place, we will be able to market our products around the world.
SH: BVT has already established a number of strategic partnerships. Can you walk us through these?
AM: No other company uses bees to deliver biological products to crops, and we're the only player in the agricultural market that combines biological products with a patented bee delivery system. Part of our strategy is to leverage that unique offering and partner with companies that will get us to into new markets and rapidly expand our product portfolio. Currently, we're in discussions with 15 potential partners, and they are all enthusiastic about the possibilities BVT technology opens up for their target markets.
We're talking to companies on the go-to-market side, ones that have a strong presence in certain markets and can effectively market our system in the countries where they operate. We are also talking to producers of other biological products that could potentially be delivered using our bee delivery systems.
Stay tuned for Part 2 where the CEO Ashish Malik discusses how Bee Vectoring Technology has become a true industry disrupter, revenue growth for the upcoming year, and why he feels BVT is still an undervalued stock.
For more information on BVT, visit the company’s website at
www.beevt.com, and sign up for breaking news at
www.beevt.com/newsletter.
FULL DISCLOSURE: This is a paid article produced by Stockhouse Publishing.