Bee Vectoring Technologies Announces South African Trials With Major Multi-National Agribusiness
Bee Vectoring Technologies Announces South African Trials With Major Multi-National Agribusiness. Bee Vectoring Technologies International Inc. is pleased to announce South African multi-national agricultural technology business Microbial Biological Fertilizers International (MBFi) has commenced trials of BVT products in South Africa. They will be evaluating BVT’s patented bee vectoring dispenser for honeybees with proprietary Vectorite powder, initially testing with MBFi’s own biological strain as a comparison with traditional spray applications.
MBFi manufactures agricultural products for the South African farming industry, supplying fertilizer, bio-stimulants, biologicals and adjuvants.“We are extremely interested in BVT’s bee vectoring application as a breakthrough and gamechanger for effective delivery of biological agents,” said Jonathan Etherington, Co-founder and Director at MBFi. “We approached BVT more than a year ago to look at this novel technology because in South Africa, we have the same concerns as Europe around the use of traditional chemical pesticides.”
“Utilizing MBFi’s already registered biological, BVT can rapidly enter the South African market and add a significant new revenue stream,” said Ashish Malik, CEO of BVT. “Our strategy also involves MBFi registering BVT’s proprietary microbe, Clonostachys rosea CR-7 (CR-7) for South African regulatory approval. Effective implementation of this strategy would significantly increase CR-7’s addressable market.”
Trials are being conducted on grower crop fields including macadamias, avocados, apples, strawberries, blueberries and cherries, timed for the start of each crop’s bloom period. MBFi will also extend the trials to include sunflowers and canola. In South Africa, macadamia, avocado, applies, strawberries, blueberries and cherry crops cover over 85,000 hectares of farmland, with sunflowers and canola adding another 520,000.
“MBFi is a company known for excellence,” said Christoph Lehnen, BVT Business Manager for Europe, Africa and Middle East. “They know how important it is to develop strong working relationships with their farmers, distributors, researchers, suppliers and staff: the partnership with BVT enables them to provide the quality and innovation their customers expect. They are a very strong fit to bring expertise and accelerate BVT’s go-to-market strategy in South Africa.”
