PHC.L Regulatory News (PHC)

23 Sep 2008 07:00



23 September 2008

Plant Health Care plc

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

IMPRESSIVE YIELD GAINS FROM PRETECT TRIALS

Plant Health Care (AIM: PHC.L), a leading provider of natural products to the agriculture and landscape industries, announces that independent trials of PreTect, the Harpin based foliar fertiliser, have resulted in impressive yield gains across a variety of crops. 

The trials were undertaken in Spain, by SICOP a Spanish government approved trials agency, over the past 12 months as part of government required efficacy tests. The results of tests on olives, tomatoes, strawberries and lettuce showed significant improvements across a number of key metrics. These trial results were the final requirement for full registration of Harpin across all crops in Spain and will enable PHC to make shelf life and vigor claims in that market.

When a small amount of PreTect was applied to tomatoes, it led to an increase in flowering and fruiting maturity, and an increase of 2.6% in yield and over 20% in the key category of firmness. The increase in firmness is the parameter that dictates the shelf-life of tomatoes and therefore helps reduce wastage and increase farmers' profits. There were over 3.6 million tonnes of tomatoes produced in Spain in 2007. 

Tests on olives showed an increase of 3.3% in yield and 5.4% in fruit size and most importantly a significant increase in oil content. There are currently around six million acres of olives harvested in Spain per year.

Results on lettuce indicated increases in yield of 4.3% per lettuce head and strawberries showed average increases of 5.8%.

John Brady, CEO of Plant Health Care commented, "These results further validate the efficacy of PreTect following the announcement in June 2008 of its successful trials across a variety of soft fruits.

"A wealth of data has shown that PreTect offers an effective method of increasing the yield and shelf-life of a variety of crops. These results help to further position Plant Health Care as a key player in the worldwide effort to increase food production and quality while also reducing synthetic chemical use."

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