PHC.L Regulatory News (PHC)

2 Oct 2008 07:52



2 October 2008

Plant Health Care plc

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

IMPRESSIVE YIELD GAINS FROM SOUTH AFRICAN HARPIN TRIALS

Plant Health Care (AIM: PHC.L), a leading provider of natural products to the agriculture and landscape industries, announces that independent trials of a Harpin based treatment, on commercial potato production in South Africa, have resulted in significant yield gains compared to conventional chemical treatments. 

The comparison trials were undertaken in South Africa, by Bayagro, an important distributor to the potato industry, and presented to the Potato Seed Council of South Africa to show the efficacy of 20 combination chemical and natural potato treatments. This trial was conducted to establish a new 'best practice' for potato growing in South Africa. 

The results showed that a Harpin based product, when used in conjunction with a standard treatment, yielded 8.1% more than all other treatments, including the current industry standard. These results have established Harpin as the new standard treatment for potato production in South Africa.

As a result of these successful trials Jason Holohan, Managing Director of UK/Spain, was invited as a guest speaker to address the recent annual South African Seed Potato Growers Forum. This forum represents growers from the potato industry in South Africa which harvests over 60,000 hectares.

John Brady, CEO of Plant Health Care commented, "South Africa represents a new and exciting market for PHC. As a result of Jason's initiative in this market and the resultant successful trials we have received significant orders for the remainder of the 2008 season as well as for 2009. We now have a strong distributor in this market and look forward to initiating sales into a variety of crops with both Harpin and Myconate."

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