Castor seeds from Brazil will be ready for shipment during third quarter of 2024. Castor harvest season in Africa started as planned.
REHOVOT, Israel, July 31, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Casterra Ag Ltd., a subsidiary of Evogene Ltd. (Nasdaq: EVGN) (TASE: EVGN), and a provider of an integrated solution for industrial-scale cultivation of castor, based on its elite castor seed varieties, developed for bio-based industries including biopolymers & biofuels, is pleased to announce the successful completion of its current castor growing and harvesting season in Brazil. The seeds are planned to be shipped during the third quarter of this year. In addition, the castor harvesting season in Africa, which is expected to supply the majority of seeds for 2024, has started as planned. As noted in previous announcements, the castor seeds produced in 2024 in both Brazilan and African territories, are expected to allow Casterra to meet all its existing orders, amounting to ~$8.4M.
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Mr. Yoash Zohar, CEO of Casterra states: "Current castor yields from the harvest in Brazil show an impressive improvement in our production capabilities. I am very proud of our professional team, which in past months invested, and keeps investing, time and efforts working closely with our subcontractors to ensure the best agricultural practices and crop performance, to produce Casterra's high quality castor seeds. We also expect to see such positive performance in our African territories where the majority of our seed production is taking place."
Casterra is at the forefront of the industrialization of castor, with unique elite varieties (high oil yield, compact and short cycle plants), global span seed production operation (Africa and Brazil), and growing protocols for efficient large-scale castor farming, well-positioned to lead industrialized castor farming.
About Casterra Ag Ltd.:
Casterra, a wholly owned subsidiary of Evogene, is an integrated solutions company for growing castor plants, based on its elite castor seed varieties, for bio-based industrial applications, such as biofuels & biopolymers. It has built its castor genetic assets based on a broad collection of over 300 castor lines from 40 different geographic and climatic regions. As part of its development process, Casterra applies advanced breeding methods utilizing Evogene's GeneRator AI tech-engine, enabling cutting-edge plant genomics tools and agro-technique expertise to enable efficient and sustainable industrial-scale production of the castor bean.
Evogene (Nasdaq: EVGN) (TASE: EVGN) is a computational biology company aiming to revolutionize the development of life-science-based products by utilizing cutting-edge technologies to increase the probability of success while reducing development time and cost. Evogene established three unique tech-engines – MicroBoost AI, ChemPass AI, and GeneRator AI – leveraging Big Data and Artificial Intelligence and incorporating deep multidisciplinary understanding in life sciences. Each tech-engine is focused on the discovery and development of products based on one of the following core components: microbes (MicroBoost AI), small molecules (ChemPass AI), and genetic elements (GeneRator AI).
Evogene uses its tech-engines to develop products through subsidiaries and strategic partnerships. Evogene's subsidiaries currently utilize the tech-engines to develop novel life science products including human microbiome-based therapeutics by Biomica, ag-biologicals by Lavie Bio, ag-chemicals by AgPlenus, and castor seed varieties, for the biofuel and other industries, by Casterra.
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" relating to future events. These statements may be identified by words such as "may", "could", "expects", "hopes" "intends", "anticipates", "plans", "believes", "scheduled", "estimates", "demonstrates" or words of similar meaning. For example, Evogene and its subsidiaries are using forward-looking statement in this press release when it discusses the expected shipment of castor seeds during the third quarter of 2024, Casterra's expectations that the castor seeds produced in Africa and Brazil will allow it to meet its existing purchase orders, and the expected positive production performance of the African subcontractors. Such statements are based on current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions, describe opinions about future events, involve certain risks and uncertainties which are difficult to predict and are not guarantees of future performance. Therefore, actual future results, performance or achievements of Evogene and its subsidiaries may differ materially from what is expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond the control of Evogene and its subsidiaries, including, without limitation, the current war between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah and any worsening of the situation in Israel such as further mobilizations or escalation in the northern border of Israel, and those risk factors contained in Evogene's reports filed with the applicable securities authority. In addition, Evogene and its subsidiaries rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties to conduct certain activities, such as their field-trials and pre-clinical studies, and if these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, comply with regulatory requirements or meet expected deadlines, Evogene and its subsidiaries may experience significant delays in the conduct of their activities. Evogene and its subsidiaries disclaim any obligation or commitment to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or developments or changes in expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions.
