AgroPages-Inocucor expands Canada sales and distribution reach-Agricultural news

Inocucor Technologies Inc. will have greater capacity to serve Canada's farmers and greenhouse growers with the appointment of Jan Kral to Vice President of Sales–Canada, and Sean Chiki, formerly of BASF Canada, to lead its Ontario sales effort.

Impetus for the company's expanded Canada presence stems in part from a distribution agreement it cemented in April with Axter Agroscience Inc., one of Canada's leading providers and distributors of foliar feeding crop solutions. Axter supplies Inocucor’s Synergro™ product to Canada's growers of crops that include strawberry, tomato, lettuce and broccoli.

Kral is a long-time member of Inocucor's leadership team and has been developing the U.S. market for Inocucor's products since their introduction in 2012. He will use his considerable expertise with U.S. growers of a full range of fruits and vegetables to expand use of Inocucor's products in Canada.

Chiki will lead Inocucor's expansion in Ontario, one of Canada's most productive agricultural and horticultural regions. He brings 18 years of experience with Canada's farming community through past sales and marketing positions with agricultural product manufacturer BASF Canada, and with Engage Agro, a distributor of specialty agriculture products. He holds a B.Sc. degree in Environmental Science from the University of Waterloo.

Inocucor uses a patented fermentation process to combine multi-strains of bacteria and yeasts into powerful soil and plant inputs that boost crop yields, improve the microbial ecology of soils and reduce groundwater pollution caused by chemical fertilizers. These products are safe for people and the environment.

Inocucor's current products, Synergro™ and Synergro Free™, are among the first microbial products of their kind to be registered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). Synergro is also a Pro-Cert Approved Input for use in organic growing in Canada.

Synergro is used by fruit and vegetable growers, while Synergro Free helps boost yields on commodity row crops such as soybean, corn and wheat. Other Inocucor products under development include biocontrol formulations that help mitigate common diseases in tomatoes, potatoes and strawberries.

In the U.S., Synergro is registered for use in 22 states and Synergro Free is registered in 17 states.

In Canada, Inocucor's products are being produced at its 20,000-square-foot R&D and pilot production laboratories at Technoparc Montreal. Inocucor will open its Denver-based 30,000-square-foot U.S. headquarters and production facility in early 2018.

Inocucor recently completed the $38.8 million CAD ($29 million USD) first close of its Series B financing round, with lead investor TPG Alternative and Renewable Technologies (San Francisco) and participation from Cycle Capital Management (Quebec), Desjardins Innovatech (Quebec) and Closed Loop Capital (U.S.).