PHC.L Regulatory News (PHC)

2 January 2024

Plant Health Care plc

 ("Plant Health Care" or the "Company")

Brazil approves TEIKKO? (PHC68949) to Control Nematodes in Soybeans

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 that its nematicide, TEIKKO, has received federal approval in Brazil in time for commercial launch for the 2024/25 soybean growing season. 

Highlights

- TEIKKO is an entirely novel peptide product which offers farmers good control of nematode pests, without resorting to conventional agrochemicals;

- Brazilian farmers spent more than $200m on nematode control in the most recent season; and

- The Company is in discussion with potential distributors for launch of TEIKKO during 2024.

TEIKKO is a novel product, from the Company's PREtec peptide platform, that amplifies a plant's natural defense pathways to provide protection against plant parasitic nematodes which damage plant roots and limit crop yield. TEIKKO is now approved as a seed treatment for the control of root-lesion nematode (Pratylenchus brachyurus) in soybean. Research carried out during the 2021/22 and 2022/23 soybean crop seasons showed that TEIKKO gave similar or superior performance to standard agrochemical treatments. TEIKKO offers farmers the opportunity to avoid use of toxic agrochemicals, without sacrificing performance. Compared with alternative biological products, it brings benefits such as three-year shelf-life and no special requirements for storing, allowing flexibility on distribution to the farmers, low rates for easy industrial seed treatment, no interference or incompatibility with other traditional seed treatments, such as fungicides and insecticides, and reliable performance under different environmental conditions, such as drought or humidity. For the 2023/24 season, the soybean harvested area in Brazil is forecast to be 45 million hectares.

According to the latest research published by Kynetec, Brazilian growers spent $215 million on soybean nematode control for the 2022/23 season, which reflects an annualized growth rate of 55% over the last six years. Additional crops and nematode species will be added to the TEIKKO product label in the future, further expanding its potential use.

Plant Health Care is progressing discussions with several distribution partners who will launch TEIKKO in 2024, for use for the 2024/25 soybean growing season.

TEIKKO is 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, resulting in improved crop growth and quality along with the ability to withstand a variety of abiotic stresses. 

Jeff Tweedy, CEO of Plant Health Care, said: ?TEIKKO will help Brazilian farmers sustainably produce their soybean crops and supports the Company's vision to be a leading global provider of alternatives to conventional agrochemicals. Unlike TEIKKO, current soil fumigants and other chemical nematicides are known to have damaging off-target effects. TEIKKO is an environmentally friendly biological alternative that performs as well as or better than those older technologies and we expect to see rapid adoption amongst Brazilian farmers. We are excited about the developing plans to launch TEIKKO in 2024, with strong growth thereafter."

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About Plant Health Care

Plant Health Care offers products to improve the health, vigour and yield of major field crops such as corn, soybeans, potatoes, and rice, 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