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Bee Vectoring signs Florida organic strawberry grower as first user of their bee-delivered biofungicide
Oct. 28, 2019
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CanadaBee Vectoring Technologies International Inc., whose CEO is based in Sacramento, has signed on a major Florida commercial strawberry farmer as its first customer of its first product.
Just last month, the company won U.S. Environmental Protection Agency registration for its biological fungicide called Vectorite with CR-7 that is delivered to plants by bees.
Florida is the nation’s second-largest commercial strawberry growing state behind California. Bee Vectoring is still awaiting approval of its biological control from the California Environmental Protection Agency. Vectorite is also registered for use on blueberries, sunflowers and almonds.
Sizemore Farms in Plant City, Florida, will use Vectorite on all of its organic strawberries on 62 acres this year, and it is considering using it on a neighboring 600 acres of conventional strawberries next year, Bee Vectoring said in a news release.
Sizemore Farms was involved in a trial use of Vectorite last year, and it saw a 27% increase in marketable yield compared to untreated strawberries, said Ashish Malik, CEO of Bee Vectoring, in the release.
“We look forward to working further with John Sizemore, who is a progressive farmer that is very influential among the Florida strawberry grower community – and to working with other like-minded growers,” Malik said.
Strawberries are a high-value crop. Florida produces about 20 million flats a year of the fruit with a value of over $307 million. California’s strawberry crop was worth $2.3 billion in 2018, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
Bee Vectoring, which is publicly traded in Canada on the TSX Venture Exchange, also raised 1 million Canadian dollars (U.S. $765,100) last week in a private placement of warrants, the company reported. The money will be used for growth and research.
Malik was hired as CEO by Mississauga, Ontario-based Bee Vectoring three years ago for his experience developing and marketing biological controls for agriculture, with Sacramento area companies including Bayer CropScience and AgraQuest Inc. Bee Vectoring plans to open a research lab in the Sacramento region in the coming years.
Using Bee Vectoring technology, a bee’s legs are coated with a bee-friendly fungicide as it leaves the hive. The bee then delivers it directly to the flowers it’s pollinating. Rather than spraying treatment on an entire field or orchard, the fungicide is delivered only where it is needed.
The Sacramento region is an international hub for biologics development, and home to labs dedicated to the technology operated by Bayer, Marrone Bio Innovations Inc., BioConsortia Inc. Joyn Bio and Biome Makers, among others.
By Mark Anderson
Source: Sacramento Business Journal
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