Plant Health Care Share Discussion Threads

[callumross] 06/11/2018 12:21

Sadly, looking like it might be the end game for this one IMHO. Always talked a good talk for years but never delivers.

[wan] 05/11/2018 07:45

I am still trying to home in on which of the big four have secured Harpin αβ for seed treatment in Corn and Soy in the US, sales for which commence this quarter (applied to seed next quarter) so it will come out/be evident at some point!

[wan] 05/11/2018 07:35

Two PHC presentations at a forthcoming and very interesting AgBioTech Summit -

February 26-28, 2019
Raleigh Durham, North Carolina

As microbial-derived products are poised to disrupt the agriculture industry, fundamental challenges remain in understanding the complexity of plant-soil microbial interactions, identifying microbial candidates amenable to fermentation and formulation on a large scale, demonstrating added value of agbiologicals in an agchemical dominated market and delivering agbiological products into the hands of growers.

The 3rd Microbiome Movement – AgBioTech Summit will unite KOLs, agbiotech, agrochemical companies, research institutions and technology experts to harness the plant-soil microbiome and accelerate commercialization of effective next generation agbiologicals.

Day One
16.35 Defining New Standards for Biopesticides Field Trials

* Trial design driven by the chemical industry is creating problems for demonstrating the added value of microbial derived products

* How can we better assess performance of biologicals and how can we measure the impact of these products on the environment (i.e. on the soil microbes, pollinators, earth worms) and not just the phytotoxicity on the plants?

* Outlining current efforts by research community and regulatory agencies to incorporate new methodology into evaluation of biologicals

Mariola Kopcinski, Director Scientific Alliances Plant Health Care

Dr. Mariola Kopcinski worked in the US and Europe in research, strategic marketing, business management, new business development and licensing. She successfully led multinational and cross-functional teams in AgBio area to transform a product concept to a well-defined post harvest business of over $100MM. Leadership role in turning around declining $200MM fungicides product portfolio into $350MM in less than three years. R&D Strategy Development at two major agricultural companies, DuPont and Syngenta. AgChem and Biological Product Development and Portfolio Management at FMC. Currently leading efforts for development and licensing of biological peptides, plant elicitors, at Plant Health Care, AgBiological and Biostimulants start up company.

Day Two
11.20 Impact of Plant Health Care Harpin αβ on Coffee, Sugar Cane and Citrus Fruit

* Recently introduced into Brazilian market Harpin αβ is gaining great acceptance by providing significant benefit to sugar cane yield and sugar content

*The new discovery that Harpin αβ stimulates mobilisation of calcium within the plant, preferentially accumulating the mineral in the plant cell wall, helps growers solve a significant quality problem in citrus by supporting production of stronger, less susceptible to breakdown and splitting peel

* Pre-harvest application of Harpin αβ positively impacts harvest quality of coffee plants as well as defence of plants against nematodes and other stressors

Jeff Tweedy, Commercial Head Americas, Plant Health Care

Jeff is current the Commercial Head for the Americas’ for Plant Health Care. Jeff has over 25 years of experience in the global agribusiness industry. Jeff has held senior leadership commercial and technical roles at Horizon Ag Products, Arysta LifeScience and Syngenta. Jeff received his B.S. and M.S degrees from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.



The discovery above that Harpin αβ stimulates mobilisation of calcium within the plant, preferentially accumulating the mineral in the plant cell wall, may make Croda, who bought Plant Impact (who's primary product mobilises calcium in plants), sit up and take note!

[wan] 23/10/2018 10:44

I have been trying to get to a point of understanding as to why PHC cannot reveal their partner in the US (all we know is that apparently it is one of the big four). Is it in any way linked to PREtec given the following recent statement -

"Outside Brazil, our partners continue to generate positive results with PREtec peptides. While the specific results remain confidential at this stage, partners are seeking to expand their evaluations and build closer relationships with Plant Health Care."

I am focusing in particular on "closer relationships", given the direction of travel in the industry (post large consolidations) for partnering, would revealing the partner compromise anything related to that? Because to my mind and given the benefits, surely revealing that Harpin 𝜶β was in your fluency agent would be a good thing and indeed a competitive advantage. In any regard, there is obviously an underlying rationale behind the partner requiring confidentiality, which should come to the surface at some point!

[pugugly] 23/10/2018 09:55

wan_ I agree = but am suffering - it is very much as you say SHOW ME THE MONEY- But at the moment it is conspicuous yes conspicuous by its absence (in both companies he is associated with)

OK He is a charming man and very approcable but I am starting to wonder if he is sufficiently forceful to motivate his respective teams to achieve the targetted results.

[wan] 23/10/2018 09:42

The Chairman is acutely mindful that he 'needs' to create credibility by not over promising and importantly 'delivering', in particular on a 'minimum' for market expectations for the full year, which very recently he reiterated that they were very confident in achieving.

Excerpts from the interim's in September -

Operational Highlights

- Harpin 𝜶β was launched in Brazil sugarcane in February 2018 through Coplacana under the brand name H2Copla. Grower feedback has been strong.

- Since the launch of H2Copla in February 2018, the product has generated revenue of $400k. The Company expects to generate at least as much revenue from H2Copla in the second half of 2018.

- Recently announced launch into corn in the USA brings expectation of significant sales in the second half of 2018.

- Industry partners continue to evaluate Innatus 3G, T-Rex 3G and Y-Max 3G in more than a dozen crops and in three regions around the world.

The strong growth of our Commercial business expected in 2018 as a whole, together with new launches over the next eighteen months, give the Board confidence that the Group will be cash positive in 2020. The Board expects to achieve full year market expectations for 2018.

Current trading and outlook

The Board remains confident about the medium term prospects for our New Technology and on sustained growth of Harpin 𝜶β. We anticipate a strong second half of 2018 in our Commercial business, delivering strong growth in the business for the full year. The acceleration of our Commercial business is exciting and reinforces our confidence in bringing the Company to cash positive within our existing cash reserves. We anticipate that the Commercial business will generate cash during 2018, thereby reducing the Company's cash burn. We are confident that the Company will be cash positive for 2020, building to further growth over the coming years.
(END)

The market does not appear to want to believe though, even when the deal in corn and soybean in the US should provide for a significant uplift in revenues. So it may be a case of SHOW US THE MONEY (or at least get clearance to reveal the partner in corn and soy)!

[pugugly] 23/10/2018 09:05

Looks like bad news leaking - Share price in continuing fall.
Could we have another Plant Impact on our hands - Over seduction by a major and then screwed royally? Could the Chairman's association with NANO another serial promiser but delivery failure (to date) be a --------------??

Thoughts ?

OK In a much needed area if the world's growing population to be nourished but will investors ever see a reasonable return or is it time to salvage what one can?

[wan] 17/10/2018 07:47

PHC's Twitter feed is quite busy and offering a number of recent and interesting aspects and presentations -



As my above post also highlights, integrated agronomic solutions will be a key driver and provide the rationale for the large players to partner -

Tuesday - October 16, 2018
Bayer at the Annual Biocontrol Industry Meeting 2018:
Bayer supports farmers with a wide range of integrated agronomic solutions

The annual conference is the most important industry meeting for manufacturers of organic crop protection products and will take place from October 22 to 24 in Basel, Switzerland. For three days, the focus will be on trends in research and development, innovations in the biologics market and novel biological products for environmentally conscious and sustainable crop protection. The congress is organized by the International Biocontrol Manufacturers' Association (IBMA) and the Swiss Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL).

An important goal for Bayer is to find the right partners to further expand the biologicals market together. “This market has enormous growth potential but is still highly fragmented”, says Karl Muenks, Segment Manager Biologicals at Bayer. “We are therefore open to foster partnerships with manufacturers of biologicals in order to be able to offer farmers more efficient integrated solutions tailored to their needs. All together, we will be helping growers to meet the current and future requirements of the various players in the food chain.”



Recall that PHC has done a deal in corn and soybean seed treatments in the US with one of the big four (Bayer, Syngenta, DowDuPont (Corteva), BASF), but cannot announce/reveal the partner due to confidentiality reasons/agreement. Either way/one, in my view it should have a notable impact!

[wan] 16/10/2018 08:57

Direction of travel -

How ‘Softer Chemistry’ in Crop Protection Addresses Increased Emphasis on Safety
October 15, 2018
By: Alan Haack

Crop management solutions that are deemed “biopreferred” by the USDA offer a more natural (although not necessarily “organic”) alternative to suppress pests and improve crop yield. These substances provide safer and more sustainable alternatives to other pest control substances.

For example, USDA biopreferred crop protection and pest mitigation products may use pelargonic acid as their active ingredient. Pelargonic acid is a naturally-occurring substance that degrades into water and CO2. It’s safe for livestock and humans and can be synthesized from chemicals or made from plants or animal fat.

By increasing their focus on soft chemistry, farmers will begin to see less harmful effects to the environment and living creatures, improved crop yields – and possibly even greater effectiveness of other applications they already use in their crop protection strategy.

Lower-Impact Conventional Chemistry
Even in more conventional chemistry, there is an industry push to find ways to lower the chemical footprint for crop protection products. Industry experts are continually looking for chemicals with fewer residues, or ones that can be used in tank mixing, to reduce the concentration of chemicals that in the past would have found their way into soil.

Full story, AgriBusiness Global -

[wan] 15/10/2018 08:18

OCTOBER 11, 2018

Adrian Percy is the former head of R&D at Bayer, recently stepping down and becoming the company’s technology ambassador. Ahead of his speaking slot at World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in London next week, we caught up with Percy to find out more about the role and his views on the development of the agritech startup market

What technologies are really exciting at the moment?
There’s three that I like to talk about and think about.

The second area I guess I would loosely call biological approaches, so things like the microbiome but also alternatives to traditional chemistry in crop protection, whether they’d be very, very specialized biological products or more broad acting bacterial based products or fungal based products. Again, I think it’s really exciting and given the political and the regulatory situation in Europe, those types of approaches will be really welcomed onto the marketplace and we’ll have an important role moving forward.

Full story, Agfunder News -

[wan] 05/10/2018 07:40

Plant Health Care on YouTube -

[wan] 03/10/2018 07:53

Opinion: New Farm Bill Paves Way for Greener Crop Treatments
10/02/18
By Gregg Bogosian Ph.D.

A new provision in the House of Representatives' draft of a new farm bill directs USDA to “ensure the expeditious and appropriate review, approval, uniform national labeling, and availability of plant biostimulant products to agricultural producers.”

This very young ag biostimulant space is taking off. Companies, ranging from small start-ups to most of the world’s agricultural giants, have already invested more than $13 billion into birthing a biostimulant sector. The current farm bill draft language, if it makes its way into law, will help provide a stable policy environment for the industry to move ahead.

Understanding the plant microbiome is the foundation of the rapidly emerging ag biologicals sector. Researchers now know that the vast majority of the microbes on and in a healthy plant provide beneficial enhancements to a plant’s normal functions. They stimulate the plant’s growth, suppress diseases, improve the ability of roots to take in nutrients from soil, strengthen plant structures and improve a plant's tolerance of drought, heat and pests. Harnessing the power of microbes, therefore, can and does dramatically impact modern agricultural practices.

The House Agriculture Committee made a good first move in recognizing the importance of biostimulants. Now's the time for Congress to spur USDA on to set up the needed steps of review, approval, labeling and more so that these products can reach growers without tripping in red tape along the way. A friendly regulatory platform will help plant microbiome companies to truly make waves in U.S agriculture and beyond.

Full story, Agri Pulse -

[wan] 01/10/2018 07:57

Further insights and useful information available via 3 channels; a Half year Presentation, a Webinar and a Research Report by RB Milestone Group-

[wan] 29/9/2018 08:40

The following article (from a series) provides a very interesting read and confirms my view that there is huge potential from the "integration" of biological and conventional crop protection products.

Identifying Uncontested Market Spaces (Blue Oceans) in the Global Crop Protection Industry (Part 3)

September 28, 2018
By: Harry Teicher

The traditional approach to generic crop protection product development has been to compete on prices and incrementally improve formulation and delivery technologies. This strategic profile is unlikely to create market-shaping innovations.

Advances in Biological Crop Protection Provide Value Innovation Opportunities and Strategic Adaptations.

In contrast, the nascent biopesticide industry staked out new utility propositions on the Grower Utility map, to generate a unique strategic profile.

Over the last two decades, significant increases in our understanding of inducible plant defense responses (strongly driven by biopesticide R&D) provide us with new and powerful utility propositions to increase product efficacy, through the introduction of new modes of activity, and the integration of plant defense responses into overall crop protection strategies — an alliance between farmer and crop.

To generate their unique strategic profile, the biopesticide industry altered their scoring on competitive factors through:

* Elimination of competition on price (growers accept the increased cost of Biopesticides)
* Reduction of competition on delivery (application of Biopesticides is more demanding than for conventional, chemical products) and efficacy (there is a perception of variable efficacy for Biopesticides)
* Elevation above industry standards of competition on new modes of action, environmental and toxicological advantages as well as positive branding (image)

… and generated “Blue Ocean” value innovation in an uncontested market space through:

Creation of a new factor that the incumbent generic industry did not offer: the integration of plant defense responses into overall crop protection strategies.

The biopesticide industry has subsequently demonstrated that significant strategic synergies can be achieved by integrating biological and conventional crop protection — not only between products but also between the knowledge bases for these strategies.

In this next article of this series, we continue with Part II of how the Biopesticide & SMART-TECH Industries create a “Blue Ocean” of uncontested crop protection market space.

Full article -

[wan] 23/9/2018 13:16

The undisclosed partner for corn in the US has particularly piqued my interest, because during the interview the CEO states that there are four players that represent more than 80% of the agchemical market in the US and who have access to about a quarter of the 90 million acres of corn in the US "and it is one on them". Well, in my view that whittles is down to Bayer, Syngenta, DowDupont and BASF, either one represents a potentially very big deal for PHC.

You will note from a quick search that only one of those four appears to have a "fluency agent"! But perhaps a new one will emerge?

I wonder whether the recent settlement (further below) regarding patent litigation between Bayer and Exosect is in anyway related? And also allows Talc to launch a soybean seed treatment which retailers apply (mentioned in the interview)?

Exosect and Bayer reach agreement in dust-up over patents in Canada
7th February 2018

UK Company Exosect Ltd. today announced that it has reached an end to its legal dispute in Canada and the U.S.A. A settlement agreement has now been reached with Bayer. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

This concludes a court action brought by Exosect in April 2015 relating to its patent (CA2861526), filed in Canada on April, 4th 2012 and granted on February 3rd, 2015.

The patent for ‘improved seed flowability and methods of sowing seeds for dust drift reduction’ is included within Exosect’s rapidly expanding international portfolio, based on its proprietary technology platform, Entostat®.

Following this agreement, Bayer will continue to sell its fluency product, whilst Exosect will progress with its program of IP out-licencing. Exosect licensee Talc U.S.A. and its product Effusion remain unaffected by the resolution of this action. As previously reported, Exosect and Talc U.S.A. entered into a non-exclusive licensing deal on March 14th, 2016.

In addition to Exosect’s Canadian and US fluency agent patent, others coming to grant include South Africa and Ukraine. Applications are pending in Brazil and EU.

Exosect’s Chief Executive Officer Andrew MacNaughton comments;

“I am pleased that we have reached a mutually agreeable position in this dispute with Bayer. It is important that successful endeavours to produce novel formulations in crop protection, that benefit both mankind and the environment, are made available to farmers with the greatest expediency.”

Further information about Exosect’s award winning Entostat formulation technology can be found on the company website. www.exosect.com

Food for thought at least.

[wan] 22/9/2018 06:16

The interesting period continues! The following interview from yesterday provides some insightful elements regarding growth prospects, including growth in Brazil with another and additional distributor for Soybeans and Sugar Cane, and an upcoming launch into soybeans in the US. The partner for corn remains (undisclosed) who has circa 25% market share.

Well worth listening to -

[wan] 20/9/2018 09:01

PHC's existing products and indeed their new technology, PREtec, ultimately has effects on the plant hormones which in turn activate the plants innate growth and defense mechanisms. Such products look set to play an increasingly important part in agriculture. Keeping the launch into corn seed treatment in mind, the following provides a very interesting read -

17th September 2018
Higher corn yields on the way
Plant growth regulators are opening the door to unheard of yields

The more costly fermentation processes of the past also put the use of PGRs on a slower trajectory than Bt corn or variable-rate planting. Plus it’s also taken roughly 70 years for growers to adopt the huge array of technologies that they’ve been asked to put to work on their farms, with everything from hybrids and fertilizers to weed control and biotechnology

In a sense, however, the ground is now ready for the plant growth regulator’s “seed” to be planted.

Full story -

[wan] 20/9/2018 09:01

PHC's existing products and indeed their new technology, PREtec, ultimately has effects on the plant hormones which in turn activate the plants innate growth and defense mechanisms. Such products look set to play an increasingly important part in agriculture. Keeping the launch into corn seed treatment in the US in mind, the following article provides for a very interesting read -

17th September 2018
Higher corn yields on the way
Plant growth regulators are opening the door to unheard of yields

The more costly fermentation processes of the past also put the use of PGRs on a slower trajectory than Bt corn or variable-rate planting. Plus it’s also taken roughly 70 years for growers to adopt the huge array of technologies that they’ve been asked to put to work on their farms, with everything from hybrids and fertilizers to weed control and biotechnology

In a sense, however, the ground is now ready for the plant growth regulator’s “seed” to be planted.

Full story -

[cascudi] 18/9/2018 09:52

Good news. I am happy with results

[wan] 18/9/2018 07:57

It's all about the second half and beyond, and I would not be surprised to see something better than management expect, especially given the full launch into corn in the US.

[wan] 14/9/2018 17:55

The product has now been identified -
4 hours ago
@PlantHealthC has been shortlisted as a finalist (best biostimulant) in the upcoming Agrow Awards. The Agrow Awards selection panel and farmers are united in their recognition that, as a quality management and yield enhancement tool, ProAct® is a truly innovative.

[wan] 12/9/2018 08:27

The above post poses an interesting question, what "new" product has been short-listed?

[wan] 12/9/2018 08:09

I note that Plant Health Care has been short-listed for “Best New Biological Product” at this year’s Agrow Awards -

Best New Biological Product (Biostimulant)