CO2 GRO Inc (TSX-V:GROW, OTCQB:BLONF). has announced the signing of a non-exclusive sales partnership agreement with Spain-based Jose Andres Garcia Munoz.
Munoz is a Spanish horticulture and berry industry veteran who has widespread contacts in the Spanish-protected agriculture market. His expertise is in helping protected agriculture operators improve cultivation practices and yields using new technologies.
CO2 GRO said Munoz will focus on Spain's protected ag facilities (greenhouse, tunnels, shade & net house, indoor vertical etc.) and crops including floriculture, fruits & vegetables, and other protected grown value crops. He will represent the company at Spanish tradeshows, be a liaison with Ag tech demonstration centres and with local contractors to install CO2 Delivery Solutions for commercial feasibilities and sales.
READ: CO2 GRO reports strong interest in its CO2 Delivery Solutions technology at two recent agricultural conferences
The non-exclusive agreement, the company’s first sales relationship in Spain, has a one-year term that automatically renews unless 90-day notice is given.
According to the INE (National Institute of Statistics) in 2019, Spain had about 75,000 hectares (ha) of protected ag facilities growing fruits and vegetables. Tomatoes (18,010 ha) and peppers (14,486 ha) were the top two plants grown in greenhouses followed by watermelon, squash, strawberries, and cucumbers.
CO2 GRO noted that Spain's greenhouses are classified as elemental (30,217 ha), simple (41,115 ha), and high-tech (3,292 ha), with the region around Almeria having the largest concentration of greenhouses in the world (7,389 ha elemental, 24,839 ha simple and 830 ha high tech). Generally, only high-tech greenhouses have the capability of enriching their grow rooms with CO2 by gassing.
"We are very happy to welcome Jose Andres as our latest international sales partner with responsibility for Spain,” said Aaron Archibald, CO2 GRO’s vice president of sales & strategic alliances, in a statement.
“As the second-largest protected ag market in the world, along with Mexico, it is critical to CO2 GRO's sales strategy to establish a presence in the country. We began our research on Spain's greenhouse market with a local consultant in Q4, 2020 and a search for a local partner in Q1, 2021.”
Archibald added: “We virtually met with Jose Andres at the Morocco berries conference in April where he was researching precision ag technologies such as CO2 Delivery Solutions for the Spanish greenhouse market."
The company said its proprietary CO2 Delivery Solutions technology is revolutionizing the global 600 billion square foot protected agriculture industry. It has created a saturated CO2 solution that when misted onto plants provides growers that cannot gas with CO2 the opportunity to increase plant yields by up to 30% and profits by up to 100%. Applying saturated CO2 also suppresses the development of pathogens such as E.coli and powdery mildew, helping to reduce crop losses.
The worldwide market for the company's CO2 Delivery Solutions technology is 50 billion square feet of greenhouses and 550 billion square feet of protected agriculture facilities. Growers can maximize revenue and profits with our systems' low fixed and variable costs and ease of systems installation.
CO2 GRO said its management is rapidly expanding its international marketing partner relationships into the EU, the UK, South Africa, the Middle East, South East Asia, Mexico, and Latin America as well as in its North American base.
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