Bee Vectoring Technologies Confirms Successful Large Scale US Commercial Demonstrations on Strawberries

MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 17, 2017) -

• BVT system produced significantly greater yields in all three demonstration trials
• Yield increases were up to 29% greater than chemical only treatment programs
• Higher yields were produced even in the absence of disease pressure
• Results further solidify commercial demand for technology

Bee Vectoring Technologies (the "Company" or "BVT") (TSX VENTURE:BEE) is pleased to announce successful, verified results from large commercial scale demonstrations of its proprietary crop production system, with strawberry growers in Florida.

The demonstrations were conducted in the Plant City area of Hillsborough County, Florida, the main winter strawberry growing region in the US which produces around 20 million flats of strawberries on 11,000 acres every year. Three influential growers who combined, control about 30% of the production in the region, expressed interest in gauging how the BVT System, consisting of a bumble bee hive with proprietary dispenser technology through which BVT's proprietary plant beneficial microbe BVT-CR7 is delivered to crops using bumble bees, could improve the productivity of their farming operations and how it could be incorporated into their crop production practices on a commercial scale. The demonstration fields were assessed for both (a) control of botrytis gray mold, a costly disease in strawberries which causes the fruit to rot and reduces the shelf life of berries, and (b) the ability to improve marketable yield.

"These are significant results and confirm that the positive results we have seen in the numerous field trials we have done over the last couple of seasons, also apply in commercial fields under real-life conditions," stated Ashish Malik, CEO of BVT. "We have been able to demonstrate that the BVT system improves yields 1) in the presence, or even in the absence of botrytis disease pressure, which is significant since it shows our system brings value to growers regardless of the severity of the disease which will follow a natural cycle from year to year; 2) with full or reduced amounts of chemical fungicides giving the grower flexibility in how they want to use the system."