Mississauga, Ontario and Sacramento, California--(Newsfile Corp. - March 15, 2021) - Bee Vectoring Technologies International Inc. (CSE: BEE) (OTCQB: BEVVF) (CVE: BEE) (the "Company" or "BVT") is pleased to announce rapid acceleration of revenues in fiscal year 2021. The Company has invoiced USD$258,000 since January 1, 2021, which already represents 18% more invoicing than the Company's entire fiscal year 2020. At current exchange rates, this translates to booked revenue of CAD$330,000.(1)
BVT sales momentum in the US Southeast is strong, including a 100% increase in revenue from blueberry growers in Georgia, the Company's largest current commercial market, where there was a 100% retention of prior year's customers, in addition to securing 11 new growers. BVT's marketing campaigns are producing leads and referrals, and growers are seeking out BVT on their own initiative.
Ethan Lineberger, owner of Maple Spring's Farm in North Carolina, a new BVT customer, said: "We have been hearing exciting things about the potential the BVT system could unlock for our business. The ability of bees to deliver a biological disease control product when fields are too wet to cross gives BVT a clear advantage compared to traditional products that are sprayed with a tractor. BVT, being a biological product, gives added marketing value to us by reducing reliance on chemical pesticides. Additionally it does not have a restricted entry interval like a synthetic fungicide which will help us during the harvest season. We are excited to try BVT across all our berry crops this season and if performance lives up to the hype we plan to double our acreage using BVT next year."
Above: BVT delivery to crop fields in Georgia, where the blueberry blooming period has begun.
The Company is seeing significant interest and has pending orders for its natural precision agriculture system in other US regions. It is making significant progress in efforts to secure sales commitments in the key blueberry and caneberry (raspberry and blackberry) growing regions of Michigan and the Pacific Northwest, where the growing season starts in May. BVT is currently in discussions with growers that represent large acres in these regions, some of whom are also strong influencers for other growers. In addition, the Company is conducting its first grower trials in berries and almonds in California, the newest jurisdiction with recent regulatory approval.
"We are hitting our objectives on commercial progress," said Ashish Malik, CEO of Bee Vectoring Technologies. "When you introduce a new technology into the agriculture market you want to track season by season progress in a few key metrics: solid revenue growth in your launch market - which we are seeing in the US Southeast; high retention of current, and signing of new customers - which we are delivering in Georgia; and high levels of interest in new markets - which is the case in Michigan and the Pacific Northwest."
BVT's sales adoption cycle consists of four market stages that span three to four growing seasons and this is done in each crop starting with the largest opportunities. The first stage is awareness, which involves proof of concept and initial trials - California is currently in this initial stage. In the second pilot stage, small-scale sales are secured via grower demos - this is Michigan and the Pacific Northwest for this year. The launch stage is when commercialization happens, with initial revenues coming from a small percentage of the acreages of large, influential growers as they validate the product. Finally, the expansion stage sees revenue growth achieved through increased share of acres with existing customers and more new customers as word-of-mouth spreads. Georgia is now in this expansion stage.
(1) BVT invoices its customers in US dollars, and uses an exchange rate for currency conversions that is the average of the exchange rate for the reporting period, so actual reported revenue may be different since it would be based on a different exchange rate than the current rate.
BVT, an agriculture technology company, is a market disruptor with a significant global market opportunity in the $240 billion crop protection and fertilizer market. BVT has pioneered a natural precision agriculture system that replaces chemical pesticides and wasteful plant protection product spray applications by delivering biological pesticide alternatives to crops using commercially grown bees. BVT's award-winning technology, precision vectoring, is completely harmless to bees and allows minute amounts of naturally-derived pesticides (called biologicals) to be delivered directly, continuously and daily throughout the bloom process, providing improved crop protection and yield results than traditional chemical pesticides - and improving the health of the soil, the microbiome and the environment. Currently, BVT has over 65 granted patents, over 35 patents pending in all major agricultural countries worldwide, and has US EPA registration of its Vectorite™ with CR-7 (EPA Registration No. 90641-2) for sale as a registered biological fungicide for use on the labeled crops.
Additional information can be viewed at the Company's website www.beevt.com. To receive regular news updates from the Company, subscribe at www.beevt.com/newsletter.
Company Contact: Ashish Malik, President & CEO info@beevt.com
The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. The CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Certain statements contained in this press release constitute "forward-looking information" as such term is defined in applicable Canadian securities legislation. The words "may", "would", "could", "should", "potential", "will", "seek", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" and similar expressions as they relate to the Company, "annual revenue potential", are intended to identify forward-looking information. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking information. Such statements reflect the Company's current views and intentions with respect to future events, and current information available to the Company, and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including: planted acres, selling price of competitive chemical pesticides and the US to Canadian dollar exchange rate. Material factors or assumptions were applied in providing forward-looking information. Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking information to vary from those described herein should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize. These factors include changes in law, competition, litigation, the ability to implement business strategies and pursue business opportunities, state of the capital markets, the availability of funds and resources to pursue operations, new technologies, the ability to protect intellectual property rights, the ability to obtain patent protection for products, third-party intellectual property infringement claims, regulatory changes affecting products, failing research and development activities, the ability to reach and sustain profitability, dependence on business and technical experts, the ability to effectively manage business operations and growth, issuance of debt, dilution of existing securities, volatility of publicly traded securities, potential conflicts of interest, unlikelihood of dividend payments, the potential costs stemming from defending third-party intellectual property infringement claims, the ability to secure relationships with manufacturers and purchasers, as well as general economic, market and business conditions, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in the Company's Filing Statement dated August 14,2020, filed with the CSE and securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com. Should any factor affect the Company in an unexpected manner, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, the actual results or events may differ materially from the results or events predicted. Any such forward-looking information is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Moreover, the Company does not assume responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such forward-looking information. The forward-looking information included in this press release is made as of the date of this press release and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable law. All figures are in Canadian dollars.
