Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
November 15, 2018
Bee Vectoring Technologies ("BVT") (TSXV: BEE) (OTCQB: BEVVF) announced today that it has been named by the Swiss State of Fribourg as one of its Agri & Co Challenge winners, as well as being recognized as the COREB Award winner. BVT and 15 other companies beat out more than 150 other ag-tech companies from 53 different countries for the award.
The Agri & Co Challenge, hosted by the State of Fribourg, Switzerland, was established in an effort to foster collaboration and enable technology innovation among organizations within the agriculture, food and biomass industries. As a "relocation program" winner, BVT will receive CHF 30,000 and will have two-years of free access to lab space at the Agri & Co Innovation Center located in Saint-Aubin, Fribourg, an area with a flourishing ag-biotech community.
"To be recognized as one of the top ag-focused innovators in the world is a great honor for BVT," said Ashish Malik, President & CEO of BVT. "BVT's precision, biologic-based technology is well-suited for use within European sustainable agriculture practices, and this award is a proof-point that top global organizations and influencers see the value that BVT's products offer growers. The partnership with Agri & Co Innovation Center will allow us accelerate our developments aimed at commercialization in Europe, including Switzerland where we have already submitted for regulatory approval."
In addition to being one of the ten relocation program winners, BVT was singled out as the COREB Award winner, with an additional cash prize of CHF 5,000. COREB is an association of communities within the Broye region of Switzerland that supports technology companies and encourages them to establish a presence in the region. The COREB Award is voted on by the public and is based on the perceived viability of technology, likelihood of success, and mission of the organization.
The BVT system uses bees to carry plant protection products directly to key areas of target plants using significantly less product than you would with traditional spray applications with an added benefit to the grower of reduced consumption of water and fossil fuels. BVT is also actively securing country registrations, including a recent Swiss submission, for its own proprietary active ingredient, Clonostachys rosea CR-7 for the control of plant fungal diseases. The European fungicide and insecticide market is approximately CDN $9.0 billion, of which around $1.0 billion is a target for BVT's bee delivery system.
"We are honored to be an Agri & Co Challenge and COREB winner and proud of our efforts to establish BVT as an integral member of the European Ag-biotech community", said Christoph Lehnen, BVT Business Manager, Europe. "These awards provide both awareness and provenance that that can aide research, funding, and collaborative partnerships that would otherwise be very difficult to secure."
BVT plans to establish a European office in the Agri & Co Innovation Center in the spring of 2019.
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