Plant Impact Chief Exec Peter Blezard says Syngenta collaboration is potentially ‘huge’

Plant Impact (LON:PIM) chief executive Peter Blezard described the Brazilian collaboration with Syngenta as potentially ‘huge’, though he cautioned investors to be patient as product trials could take some time.

‘They need to look at us over a 24 month time-scale,’ he told Proactive Investors.

Earlier the company announced it was tying up with the Brazilian arm of the Swiss agri-giant to carry out a field study on its ecologically friendly crop nutrition and protection products CaT and PiNT.

The two will be used on corn, cotton and coffee crops as part of what the company calls a “significant programme”.
However the study will initially focus on 4,000 hectares of soybean production.

Syngenta is putting its financial muscle behind the scheme as well as providing 20 local farmers for the study.

‘It is the biggest trial our technologist have heard of - the opportunity is huge,’ Blezard said.

It is likely the assessment will take place over two harvests to test the efficacy of the Plant Impact products.

But Blezard is in no doubt of the potential of CaT and PiNT and he is confident Brazilian farmers will buy the products.

The Plant Impact chief says there is a clear business case for their using the environmentally friendly fertilisers as they improve crop yields, and he used an example much closer to home to illustrate the point.

‘Currently we are lifting potatoes all over Europe -  in France, Holland and Belgium, Germany and the UK,’ Blezard said.

‘We are getting several tonnes per hectare more (from using this fresh approach).

‘This gives the grower the confidence to buy the product. We give them a return on investment around which they can build a business case.’

The striking part of the agreement is that Plant Impact will receive support for its programme from EMBRAPA, the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture.

EMBRAPA will conduct official independent trials into important Brazilian crops and provide further support for the registration of Plant Impact's technologies, the company said.

The scale of the opportunity is also quite significant. Once the trials are completed it opens up an initial target market of three million hectares of soybean production, one million hectares of corn and 300 hectares of both cotton and coffee.

However this just scratches the surface as Brazilian farmers grew around 21 million hectares of soybean, 14 million hectares of corn, two million hectares of coffee bean and one million hectares of cotton in 2008.

Plant Impact is still negotiating commercial terms with Syngenta in Brazil, but 
Blezard said: ‘It may well be a licensing deal with milestone payments with a make and sell agreement.’