03 Apr 2018 First Quarter
Note from the CEO
The first quarter of 2018 has gone in a flash and a huge amount of work has gone into consolidating the performance for this season and starting to get ready for next season. Our SIT programme has continued to show good results in all valleys and the fine tuning of the process to deliver this consistency at an economically viable cost is at an advanced stage. River Bioscience has had an exceptional year despite having two products in their first year of commercialisation and the future plans for these and other products make for exciting times ahead. March is our financial year end and the recently approved budgets for the next year are both challenging and exciting. Cheers Rob
Cryptogran Breaks Volume Records
Since 2004 Cryptogran has been the backbone of sales volumes for River Bioscience (RB). It is a naturally occurring indigenous pathogen of the False Codling Moth (FCM). The virus was developed as a biological control agent of FCM by the CRI in the early 2000’s, is registered for use on citrus and other crops and is produced by RB in it’s facility in Addo. The adult female FCM will lay her eggs singly on fruit. Larvae will penetrate into the fruit within minutes of hatching and this infestation will cause fruit to drop off the plant. FCM can cause substantial crop losses and undetected infestation shortly before harvest can cause decay of fruit once it has been packed and shipped to export markets. When Cryptogran is sprayed onto a crop, FCM larvae will ingest the virus particles, potentially even before they begin to actively feed and this will eventually infect the entire body of the larva, killing it. Sales volumes over the last few years have shown a constant increase with this years increase being the biggest percentage increase over the previous season in the last decade. This year also breaks the previous record for total sales in a season by 15%. Well done to all involved in keeping this valuable product reliably available to the market.
RBX Group Birthdays in April:
Winston Adoons, Warren Botha, Martin Fransman, Monrezo Meyer, Nceba Ngquse, Meloise Paulse, Zelmari Persens, Riewan Pieterse, Gurshwill Swartz, Redawaan Valentyn, Grayzill van Wyk, Angelique Van Zyl