Eden Regulatory News (EDEN)

29 June 2023

Eden Research Plc

("Eden" or "Company")

AGM Statement

Eden Research plc (AIM: EDEN), the AIM-quoted company focused on sustainable biopesticides and a plastic-free formulation technology for use in global crop protection, animal health and consumer products industries, will hold its Annual General Meeting today at 11:00am at 6/7/8 Tokenhouse Yard, London.

At the meeting, Eden's Chairman, Lykele van der Broek, will make the following statement:

"Since we last convened, Eden has achieved a number of significant milestones which have materially reshaped the business, lifting our financial performance and providing better insight into our growth trajectory.

Our industry requires tremendous patience as we navigate extensive lab research, glasshouse and field trials, regulatory requirements, and commercial agreements. Often, we are at the behest of the regulatory authorities, who conduct stringent checks to ensure that our naturally-derived products meet all their safety and efficacy criteria. Eden plays an active role throughout this process to ensure that the necessary paperwork, documentation, and evidence are provided so they are well-equipped to make an informed decision to approve our applications. This process means it can take a while before we can introduce our products to the market and realise the full potential of our innovative technology.

Our success over the past 12 months has been the culmination of countless hours of effort to ensure that farmers across the globe have access to our patented products and can protect their crops in a sustainable way. Most notably, we have secured entry into the US market, with federal approval from the US EPA for our two formulated products, three associated active ingredients and Sustaine® encapsulation system. Furthermore, we have gained approvals in various states, such as California (Cedroz), Florida, Washington, Oregon, and New York, to name a few. We are still eagerly awaiting approval in California for Mevalone, which we expect to arrive in time for the 2024 growing season. Here, we will target the lucrative Californian wine industry, where there is demand for sustainable fungicides as winegrowers are under increasing pressure to adopt sustainable winemaking practices.

While we are pleased to have finally broken ground in the US, we see this one milestone as the start of an exciting journey ahead. Where the EPA process has previously been long-drawn-out, the completed registration of our active ingredients will allow us to accelerate the regulatory approvals and registration process of other formulated products based on these same terpenes. This includes an advanced insecticide development programme and our newly announced seed treatment, EcovelexÔ, for which we are currently pursuing regulatory authorisation in the EU.

We are pleased to have obtained various approvals for Mevalone and Cedroz in other key geographies. In April of this year, we had our first Central European approval with the registration of Mevalone on grapes and apples in Poland, one of the largest producers of apples in the EU. This regulatory authorisation marks the first of more to come in Central Europe, where we will be targeting the attractive wine markets of Germany, Austria, and Hungary.

On yet another development front, Mevalone, can now be used domestically by gardeners in Italy, affording home growers the same access to our sustainable products as commercial farmers. This is the first time we have been able to provide domestic access to our products, demonstrating the versatility that we can achieve with the continued development of our existing product line.

Our recent full-year financial results illustrated a return to meaningful sales growth as we recover from the previous two years which were impacted by the global pandemic. We expect the 2023 financial year to be equally strong as we make the most of our new product approvals and label extensions. We also expect our new distribution agreement in France with Corteva to begin to significantly boost sales of Mevalone, where we will seek to maximise the marketing opportunities in the wine industry's second-largest market by hectarage and production.

Finally, you will have all heard about the unveiling of our latest product, Ecovelex, which is the result of our joint efforts with Corteva, which began just over three years ago. Since Corteva's initial approach to using our technology to protect its seeds from bird infestation, we have conducted over one hundred rigorous trials, and we are absolutely delighted to be able to say the product is more than capable of replacing the incumbent conventional products which face regulatory pressure. The revenue potential of Ecovelex within the seed treatments industry is expected to be significant for Eden, particularly in the wake of a growing number of conventional seed treatments being removed from the market. We seek to bring Ecovelex to the market as soon as practically possible and will closely evaluate all opportunities available to us.

To wrap up, I would like to congratulate the management team on their persistence in recent times and for the successes we are witnessing. I'd also like to thank you, our shareholders, for your loyal support during this time. I look forward to providing further updates on the company's progress in due course."

Company presentation

After the conclusion of the formal business of the AGM, Sean Smith, Eden's Chief Executive Officer, will provide a short presentation to investors with an overview of the Company's progress and strategy.

The presentation will be made available on the Company's website later today.

For further information contact:

Notes to Editors:

Eden Research is the only UK-listed company focused on biopesticides for sustainable agriculture. It develops and supplies innovative biopesticide products and natural microencapsulation technologies to the global crop protection, animal health and consumer products industries. 

Eden's products are formulated with terpene active ingredients, based on natural plant defence metabolites. To date, they have been primarily used on high-value fruits and vegetables, improving crop yields and marketability, with equal or better performance when compared with conventional pesticides. Eden has two products currently on the market: 

Based on plant-derived active ingredients, Mevalone ® is a foliar biofungicide which initially targets a key disease affecting grapes and other high-value fruit and vegetable crops. It is a useful tool in crop defence programmes and is aligned with the requirements of integrated pest management programmes. It is approved for sale in a number of key countries whilst Eden and its partners pursue regulatory clearance in new territories thereby growing Eden's addressable market globally.

Cedroz ™ is a bionematicide that targets free living nematodes which are parasitic worms that affect a wide range of high-value fruit and vegetable crops globally. Cedroz is registered for sale on two continents and Eden's commercial collaborator, Eastman Chemical, is pursuing registration and commercialisation of this important new product in numerous countries globally.

Eden's Sustaine® encapsulation technology is used to harness the biocidal efficacy of naturally occurring chemicals produced by plants (terpenes) and can also be used with both natural and synthetic compounds to enhance their performance and ease-of-use. Sustaine microcapsules are naturally-derived, plastic-free, biodegradable micro-spheres derived from yeast. It is one of the only viable, proven and immediately registerable solutions to the microplastics problem in formulations requiring encapsulation.

Eden was admitted to trading on AIM on 11 May 2012 and trades under the symbol EDEN. It was awarded the London Stock Exchange Green Economy Mark in January 2021, which recognises London-listed companies that derive over 50% of their total annual revenue from products and services that contribute to the global green economy. Eden derives 100% of its total annual revenues from sustainable products and services. 

For more information about Eden, please visit: www.edenresearch.com.

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