Mississauga, ON Canada and Sacramento, CA USA
March 15, 2021
Bee Vectoring Technologies International Inc. (the “Company” or “BVT”) (CSE: BEE) (OTCQB: BEVVF) (CVE:BEE) 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.
About Bee Vectoring Technologies International Inc.
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.
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