Bee Vectoring Technologies announces landmark sales and distribution agreement

Bee Vectoring Technologies (the "Company" or "BVT") announced it has entered into a sales and distribution agreement with Guardian Soil Solutions LLC in Florida for the launch of its proprietary crop production system.

 

Guardian Soil Solutions, based in Plant City, Florida, is focused on providing agronomic advice and marketing and distribution of biological products for growers across Florida. The company's Co-Founder and Director of Field Operations is Josh Young, who was previously the Plant City branch manager for Triangle Chemical Company, a member of Tenkoz, the largest distribution entity for crop protection products in the United States. Mr. Young has longstanding relationships with the Florida strawberry growers. BVT and Guardian collaborated in the commercial demonstrations earlier this year, where Guardian could see first-hand the excellent results delivered by the BVT System.

 

Under the agreement, Guardian will acquire sales for BVT from its customer base and will be responsible for installing the complete BVT System on a farmer's field. This includes a bumble bee hive with dispenser technology including a replaceable tray through which BVT's proprietary plant beneficial microbe is delivered to crops using the bumble bees. Guardian will maintain the system by replacing the trays periodically to deliver fresh product to the crop throughout the season which runs typically from mid-December to the end of March, and for its disposal at the end of the season. BVT will invoice the growers directly on a monthly basis, per acre where the BVT System is being used in the season.

 

"Josh has an outstanding reputation across the country with key players in the agriculture sales and distribution business, and I welcome him as a partner" said Ashish Malik, CEO of BVT. "The principle focus of the company now is revenue generation. This agreement represents the start of this phase for BVT and additional discussions are in progress in other states and crops as we continue to follow the recognized process for new product introductions in the agricultural industry."

 

The companies are working closely together to finalize the launch plan which will be announced shortly. The initial focus is in strawberries in Hillsborough County, Florida, the major winter strawberry growing region in the US which produces around 20 million flats of strawberries on 11,000 acres every year with a BVT annual revenue potential of CAD $7.5 million. The objective of the launch plan in the first two months will be to get sales commitments from growers who did commercial demonstrations during 2017, and to secure additional commercial demos to grow the target user base. Additional opportunities on blueberries, cucurbit crops and tomatoes across Florida will be pursued through the partnership.

 

"I have been in the Agricultural Sales and Distribution business for over 17 years in the Plant City area and work closely with growers who have trialed the BVT system and recognize the enormous potential for its use in a foundation program for the management of Botrytis gray mold and increasing the productivity of strawberry crops," said Josh Young, Co-Founder of Guardian Soil Solutions. "The system is highly sustainable and provides improved pollination, enhances plant vigor, reduces fungicides and has demonstrated impressive increases in marketable yields. It is rare that we get to work with such a disruptive technology and we expect our customers to embrace the benefits of BVT. We are excited to be working with BVT to commercialize the system, and have already started talking to a number of key growers to secure sales commitments for this coming winter season."