Plant Health Care signs exclusive UK distribution agreement for biostimulant Harpin αβ

By Francesca Morgan, Vox Newswire

Plant Health Care (PHC) has announced a new distribution agreement with a leading distributor in the UK for exclusive access to its biostimulant Harpin αβ in all crops in the UK. 

The Company, which provides patent-protected biological products to global agriculture markets, said its patent-protected product Harpin αβ has been shown to have ‘exceptional grower benefits’ within the UK, particularly in the amenity (turf) market and in potatoes.  

Plant Health Care views the deal as “an important step” towards the firm building a stronger presence in Europe, which is the world's largest market for sustainable agriculture.   

Plant Health Care's Harpin αβ works by triggering the plant's own self defense systems, leading to a robust physiological response, in a manner similar to vaccinations in humans.  

The plant responds to the biostimulant with improved crop quality, nutrient use efficiency, tolerance to abiotic stress and ultimately, increased marketable yield, the firm explained. 

Harpin αβ has been sold on a small scale in the UK for 14 years as ProAct^® which launched into the potato market in 2019. To date, it has shown to increase the number of tubers per plant, increase marketable yield and to improve Calcium uptake for better storage.  

The Group, which signed its exclusive distribution agreement with Agrii, a distributor which offers agronomy services, technology and strategic advice, said it has worked alongside the distributor for several years in order to establish the grower benefits of Harpin αβ.  

Plant Health Care highlighted that results to date have been particularly exciting in the amenity sector and in potatoes and Agrii and Plant Health Care have therefore reached an agreement under which the partner will have exclusive distribution of Harpin αβ in the UK. 

In particular, in the amenity sector, leading golf courses and well-known football clubs are now using Harpin αβ as a biostimulant to improve the quality of their turf, the Group said. 

Jeff Tweedy, COO of Plant Health Care said, "We have been working on the technical benefits of Harpin αβ in the UK for some years.  We now have clarity on the best opportunities for the product.  This agreement with Agrii reflects our joint confidence in the growth of ProAct^® sales in the UK, especially as UK farming drives towards increased sustainability.”  

Plant Health Care, which believes this latest distribution agreement with Agrii will result in more growers being able to access the yield improvement and sustainability benefits that ProAct^® offers, said it also expects to see greater demand for biological solutions in the UK. 

London-listed Plant Health Care is a leading provider of proprietary agricultural biological products and technology solutions focused on improving crop performance.  

Its commercial business is driven by sales of Harpin αß, a recombinant protein which acts as a powerful biostimulant, promoting the yield and quality of crops. PHC sells the proprietary soil treatment Myconate in selected countries and sells both Harpin αß and Myconate through specialist distributors globally. In Mexico, PHC distributes third-party biological products.  

PHC utilises its PREtec platform to generate numerous products and it is focusing on three products targeting very large market opportunities with a value of more than $5bn.  

The Group said these products are currently under evaluation with six potential commercial partners. Meanwhile, PHC also continues to evaluate further candidate products from its robust pipeline of development candidates for additional crops and indications.  

In a trading update released in January 2021, the Group reported robust in-market sales growth of Harpin αβ with in-market sales in Brazil for sugarcane coming in at three times those of 2019, while in-market sales to corn came in at 1.8 times higher than the prior year.  

Meanwhile, the Group hailed its progress in bringing the first products from the PREtec platform to market. It highlighted it is planning for initial commercial launch in Brazil during the second half of 2021. 

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