Plant Health Care PLC on Wednesday said it has reached a distribution agreement with Wilbur-Ellis Agribusiness to support commercial sales of new fungicide Obrona, which is expected to become available in US markets this summer.
Plant Health Care is a North Carolina, US-based provider of proprietary agricultural biological products and technology solutions focused on improving crop performance. Wilbur-Ellis Agribusiness is a Colorado-based agricultural products retailer and a subsidiary of Wilbur-Ellis Holdings Inc.
Plant Health Care said it and Wilbur-Ellis have been exclusively partnered since 2020 to evaluate and develop PHC279, the active ingredient in foliar fungicide Obrona, for high-value speciality and row crop markets.
Plant Health Care said Obrona, which recently was approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency, has been validated through multiple years of field trials. It is thought to be effective against a wide variety of plant pathogens such as corn diseases tar spot and common rust, and white mould which affects leafy vegetables.
Plant Health Care Chief Executive Officer Jeff Tweedy: ‘Having worked with Wilbur-Ellis on the development of Obrona for more than three years, I am gratified that this new agreement will bring Obrona to the market to enable control of many of the most recalcitrant fungal and bacterial pathogens challenging growers today.
‘Obrona will support sustainable agriculture with better crops delivering higher yield for thousands of US farmers.’
PHC279, which Plant Health Care said is ‘derived from naturally occurring proteins’, is the first product from its Pretec ‘vaccines for plants’ technology platform that will be made available to US farmers. The platform’s initial product Saori is currently in use in Brazil to control various soybean diseases.
‘As part of an integrated pest management programme, Obrona will reduce reliance on older synthetic pesticides and will provide growers with a valuable tool to proactively manage disease resistance,’ Plant Health Care explained.
Plant Health Care is continuing to expand into new markets through strategic partnerships with distributors. It said it is ‘on track’ to earn $30 million in revenue by 2025 through such partnerships and through new product launches.
Shares in Plant Health Care were up 12% at 10.50 pence in London on Wednesday.
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