AgroPages-Bee Vectoring Technologies announces go-to-market partnership developments in North Africa and Middle East Regions-Agricultural news

On July 24, 2024, Bee Vectoring Technologies International Inc. (the ″Company″ or ″BVT″) (CSE: BEE) (OTCQB: BEVVF) (CVE:BEE) announced progress into markets in North Africa and the Middle East through strategic partnerships with leading, locally-connected agribusinesses in four key countries to commercialize the Company’s proprietary bee vectoring system and biological control agent Clonostachys rosea strain CR-7 (CR-7).

″These partnerships are at the core of our strategy for quickly scaling business,″ said Ashish Malik, CEO of BVT. ″Leveraging established local channels and using embedded sales teams is an incredibly cost-efficient way to access more of the market, fast.″

BVT continues to progress its strategic go-to-market collaborations in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Morocco and Israel.

In Turkey, the partnership is with BioGlobal: earlier this year, they ran demonstration trials with Turkey’s Ministry of Agriculture. The trial clearly showed that the BVT bee vectoring system, used with bumblebees and a third-party microbe, is incredibly effective in precisely delivering a beneficial microbe to greenhouse tomatoes.

″The trials were extremely successful,″ said Christoph Lehnen, BVT Business Manager for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. ″So much so that Turkey’s Ministry of Agriculture has requested an official protocol be developed by the country’s research institutes to trial Clonostachys rosea strain CR-7, BVT’s proprietary biological control agent.″

Once the protocol is secured, BioGlobal will proceed with registration trials for CR-7 in Turkey, then move forward with full-country registration. BVT is also collaborating with BioGlobal in Azerbaijan, where registration could be secured in as little as a year.

In Morocco, BVT has had successful trials on tomato crops. With the resulting strong data, applying for country registration is the next step. BVT will work with Groupe SAOAS on the submission which is planned to be timed alongside the submission to the European Union

In Israel, trials are being conducted with Lidorr Elements, a leading crop protection expert in the Israeli market. Lidorr Elements has commenced trials of CR-7 on almonds using the Company’s bee vectoring system for bumblebees, comparing it with traditional spray applications. Trials on strawberry and tomato crops are planned next.

The next step is registering BVT’s technology and selling it to local growers. This is the plan for the other three countries as well.

″These are strategic countries for BVT to fast track to market,″ continued Mr. Lehnen. ″Pollinating crops with bees are already a regular agriculture industry practice in these parts of the world. The four countries combined use more than 600,000⁽¹⁾ commercial bee hives each year.″

BVT’s addressable market in the four key countries includes 157,600 hectares of key crops grown. This includes an estimated 106,500 hectares of covered tomatoes, cherries and berries in Turkey; 8,100 hectares of covered tomatoes, covered apricots and berries in Azerbaijan; 22,000 hectares of covered tomatoes and berries in Morocco; and 31,000 hectares of almonds, tomatoes, peppers, berries, peaches and avocados in Israel.⁽²⁾

(1) Source: BVT estimate

(2) Source: BVT sourced from information from collaboration partners and country statistics.