4 April
2024
Plant Health Care
plc
("Plant Health Care" or the "Company")
Mexico approves PHC68949
to Control Nematodes in Vegetable Crops
Plant Health
Care® (AIM.PHC.L), a leading provider of peptides
used by growers to improve crop production and quality within
global agriculture markets, is pleased to announce COFEPRIS
registration and pending commercial launch of the biological
nematode control product PHC68949 in Mexico.
Highlights
- PHC68949 is a novel
product that amplifies a plant's natural defense pathways to
provide protection within the rhizosphere to protect plant roots
from parasitic nematodes, promoting crop yield and harvest
quality.
- The Company plans a
limited launch of PHC68949 in the second half of 2024 to build
grower and distributor awareness, followed by a full commercial
launch through its most important distributors in 2025. The brand
name will be announced closer to the launch date.
- PHC68949
will initially be applied via drench and foliar applications on
tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and other Solanaceae crops as well as
cucumbers and other Cucurbit crops in Mexico.
As a next generation bionematicide,
PHC68949 increases plant health and yield across a wide range of
commercial crops. Results from field studies confirm efficacy from
foliar applications of PHC68949 is comparable to synthetic chemical
nematicides and superior to current biological products.
PHC68949 provides growers with a low use rate, environmentally
friendly option with a novel mode of action to displace established
synthetic chemical nematicides and improve crop yield and harvest
quality. PHC68949 provides growers with consistent performance and
convenience as it does not have label limitations commonly
associated with synthetic chemical nematicides and is exempt from
Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) restrictions, providing greater access
to high value export markets. Product launch will focus on
control of southern root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne incognita) in Solanaceae
and Cucurbit crops, with additional claims on other crops and
nematode species to follow in the future.
Mexico currently plants 48,000
hectares of tomato and 150,000 hectares of peppers per year. Mexico
produced 1.2 million metric tons of watermelon in 2023 and is the
world's largest exporter of cucumbers. Production of cucumbers in
Mexico is expected to reach 1.02 million metric tons by 2026. In
2022, the plant-applied biopesticides market in Mexico, which
includes both biofungicides and bionematicides, was estimated at
$200 million, growing at a CAGR of 14.3%.
The Company submitted the PHC68949
application for regulatory review to the Federal Committee for
Protection from Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS) in September 2023 based
on a comprehensive data package. The regulatory process in
Mexico for agricultural products involves a detailed and
comprehensive review of standard safety and performance data
including replicated small plot field trials to confirm product
efficacy.
PHC68949 is a novel
product based
on the Company's innovative PREtec technology platform. Derived
from natural proteins, PREtec is an environmentally
friendly technology which stimulates plant defense and
pathogen resistance mechanisms within plants. Years of research,
field testing, and commercial experience have confirmed that
PREtec products deliver
improved crop growth, harvest quality, and grower
profitability.
Compared with alternative biological
products, PHC68949 brings highly consistent product efficacy across
a broad spectrum of application and environmental conditions and is
compatible with fungicides, herbicides, and insecticides in
tank-mix and sequential application systems. PHC68949 has a
two-year shelf-life with no special requirements for storing or
handling, which allows greater flexibility within the distribution
channel and ease of on-farm application.
Jeff Tweedy, CEO of Plant Health Care,
said: ‟Following the approval
last month of our SAORI biofungicide, I am excited to announce the
approval of PHC68949 for nematode control. The planned launch of
both PHC68949 and SAORI in Mexico later this year culminate years
of hard work undertaken by the Company to demonstrate the safety,
efficacy, and value that both products bring to the market.
We continue to scale the PREtec pipeline of products into new
markets that will offer growers sustainable technology for the land
and consumers.
"The approval of PHC68949 supports
the Company's vision to be a leading global provider of
alternatives to conventional synthetic agrochemicals. We are
excited about the developing plans to launch PHC68949 in 2024, with
strong growth thereafter."
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For
further information, please contact:
Plant Health Care plc Jeff
Tweedy, CEO
|
Tel: +1 919 926 1600
|
Cavendish Capital Markets Limited - Nomad &
Broker Neil
McDonald / Pete Lynch
|
Tel: +44 (0) 131 220 9771
|
About Plant Health Care
Plant Health Care offers products to
improve the health, vigour and yield of major field crops such as
corn, soybeans, sugarcane, potatoes, rice, and wheat, as well as
specialty crops such as fruits and vegetables. We operate globally
through subsidiaries, distributors, and supply agreements with
major industry partners. Our innovative, patent-protected
biological products help growers to protect their crops from stress
and diseases, and to produce higher quality fruit and vegetables,
with a favourable environmental profile.
Find out more
at www.planthealthcare.com