Rivals nip at Botry-Zen's heels

By Chris Hutching

Friday 7th June 2002

HOWARD PATERSON: Facing competition

The promoters of Botry-Zen are pushing ahead with a Stock Exchange listing and more field trials to stay ahead of competitors also close to commercial production of anti-botrytis agents.

The latest proposal to Botry-Zen shareholders is for a July listing - a delay on the listing date announced last year of February due to hitches in production and application trials.

Investors clearly had high expectations when they massively over-subscribed the $5 million Botry-Zen float by southern businessman Howard Paterson last year by about $115 million.

The Botry-Zen organic control agent includes an active organism that out-competes the botrytis fungal infection and can be used on a wide range of crops and particularly grapes.

But Botry-Zen is competing in a race against other serious contenders to provide an anti-botrytis solution for the wine and horticulture industry.

Listed Certified Organics has two years of northern hemisphere trials under its belt and plans for field trials in New Zealand next year for its organic, microbial fermentation formulation that controls fruit rots, including botrytis and grape sour rot.

Certified Organics has already established a distribution chain for its products in New Zealand, has appointed agents in Australia, and is in the process of setting up joint ventures internationally to market and distribute its products.

The company has struck a licensing agreement to commercialise the product being developed by its partner, BioDiscovery, and the companies will collaborate to develop other organic biopesticides, fungicides and herbicides.

The company's biological botrytis control is thought to work by altering the levels of naturally occurring favourable populations of bacteria and fungi on the plant, reducing the incidence of unfavourable micro organisms.

Certified Organics managing director Dr Earl Stevens said Botry-Zen might have a profile advantage in the investment market because it had been developed closely in conjunction with the wine industry and HortResearch but the business plan appeared to hinge on cornering a significant portion of the market.

He questioned the vulnerability of a single-product company and the purpose of listing on the Stock Exchange at such an early stage in its commercialisation.

Certified Organics would be launching on to the market its own home garden range of natural weed killers based on pine extract this Spring.

Dr Earl said while his company competed with Botry-Zen, it was pleasing to see entrepreneurs like Mr Paterson raise the profile of New Zealand's bio-technology industry.

He said botrytis was estimated to cost the New Zealand wine industry some $18 million a year in lost production and control measures, and the kiwifruit industry $20 million.

The most common control method is to spray crops with chemical fungicides that plants may develop resistance to and which consumers distrust.

Meanwhile, Botry-Zen chairman Dr Max Shepherd said in a letter to shareholders that they will be asked to approve a new constitution at a special general meeting in Dunedin on June 19.

In a letter to shareholders he outlined recent problems that have been overcome.

Previously Botry-Zen had been embodied in a liquid suspension, which was susceptible to a wide fluctuation in temperature during transit and also to variations depending on the end users' storage and application techniques.

This had led to variations in product concentration and some technical difficulties in application.

Despite this, field trials during the past season have again produced pleasing results, with the Botry-Zen product controlling botrytis infections in Gisborne, Hawke's Bay and Marlborough.

The product is now produced as a paste which has solved the early inconsistencies and lengthened the shelf life to many months, according to Botry-Zen chief executive John Scandrett.

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