Eden Research Regulatory News (EDEN)

11 February 2021

Eden Research Plc

("Eden" or "Company")

Year-end trading update

Eden Research plc (AIM: EDEN), the AIM-quoted company focused on sustainable biopesticides and plastic-free formulation technology for use in global crop protection, animal health and consumer products industries, provides the following unaudited trading update for the year ended 31 December 2020.

Financials

Revenue for the year is expected to be approximately £1.6m (2019: £2.0m) with a loss before tax and statutory operating loss of approximately £2.6m (2019: £1.4m). Product sales during the period were affected by the impact of the global pandemic on the hospitality industry which, in turn, affected wine grape production methods and, inevitably, the widespread use of crop protection products. In addition, regulatory processes around the world were impacted by wide-scale disruptions to the working practices of government agencies as a direct consequence of the pandemic. As a result, a number of product approvals which had been expected in the year, and which should have resulted in product sales, were delayed.

The cash position at the year-end was £7.3m (2019: £0.5m), aided by a fundraise of £10.4 million (before expenses) in March 2020, which saw multiple new institutional investors joining the share register. This has provided Eden with the financial resources to invest in the development of its insecticide and seed treatment products.

Corteva

At the beginning of 2020, Eden signed a one-year exclusive Evaluation Agreement with Corteva. Corteva (NYSE: CTVA) is the fourth largest agriculture input company in the world and is a publicly traded, pure-play agriculture company created by the combination of DuPont Crop Protection, DuPont Pioneer seeds and Dow AgroSciences. This agreement allowed Corteva time to exclusively evaluate Eden's Sustaine® encapsulation technology and several formulations in specific seed treatment applications. If successful, it was anticipated that this would lead to Corteva being granted exclusive distribution rights, on terms to be negotiated, initially targeting several major crops, including broad acre crops.

This process is currently moving forward, as expected, and the Company will provide an update as soon as practicable.

This represents Eden's first collaborative development efforts in the area of seed treatments as well as the first disclosed collaboration with a global leader in agricultural inputs. Additionally, this is the most comprehensive work done by to date on major broad-acre crops using Eden's technologies.

Development and Operations

Development work continued largely as hoped during 2020, including on Eden's insecticide and seed treatment products. In addition, the Company continues to work with a number of parties to develop products that avoid polymer encapsulation using Eden's proprietary Sustaine® technology with third party active ingredients.

In order to provide the flexibility and control to advance the Company's growth, Eden has invested in setting up its own laboratory facilities on site, alongside a new office. Relocating to the new site at Milton Park in Oxfordshire, one of Europe's leading science and technology communities, means that the Company is now able to undertake development work in-house for the first time, which allows increased flexibility, speed and efficiency.

As well as moving to new laboratory facilities, the Eden team expanded in 2020 with the recruitment of the new team members who are already making valuable contributions to the expansion of Eden's capabilities and providing support to its existing and potential customers. Overheads associated with Eden's new in-house capabilities are partially offset by the Company's decreased reliance on external labs and contractors.

Organic status

During 2020, Eden announced that its three EU-registered active ingredients, geraniol, eugenol and thymol, have all been approved for use in organic farming, following inclusion in the EU's Organic Production Regulation. This opens up new commercial opportunities for the Company and is relevant to all products that utilise the Company's three EU-registered active ingredients. Following the allowance of Eden's active ingredients in organic agriculture, Eden's formulated products are now receiving approval for use on organic farms across a range of European countries. The performance of Eden's products coupled with the allowed uses in organic agriculture helps to further differentiate Eden's products and provides a strong competitive advantage in comparison with conventional synthetic pesticides.

Sean Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Eden, said: "It has been an unprecedented year for businesses across the globe, and Eden has not been immune to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we are proud of the resilience we have demonstrated against this exceptional backdrop and the continued progress we have made in advancing our strategy and positioning Eden for growth in the rapidly growing biopesticides market.

The financial year has seen us expand our footprint, both geographically and through new product development, supported by the successful fund raise delivered in March 2020.

We were also delighted to be the first company to receive the London Stock Exchange's Green Economy Mark in January 2021. This recognises the role we are playing in supporting the transition to sustainable agriculture and highlights our credentials as an attractive 'green' investment opportunity on the London market."

"The information contained within this announcement (the "Announcement") is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014. Upon the publication of this Announcement via Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain."

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Notes to Editors:

Eden Research is an AIM quoted company that develops and supplies breakthrough biopesticide products and natural, plastic-free microencapsulation technologies to the global crop protection, animal health and consumer products industries.

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 extract. It is one of the only viable, proven and immediately registerable solutions to the microplastics problem in formulations requiring encapsulation.

Eden has numerous patents and a pipeline of products at differing stages of development targeting specific areas of the global agrochemicals industry. Eden was admitted to trading on AIM in May 2012.