Nematicide Approval in Greece

2 September 2024

Eden Research Plc

("Eden" or "Company")

Nematicide Approval in Greece

Eden Research plc (AIM: EDEN), a leader in sustainable biopesticide and biocontrol technology, is pleased to announce that CedrozÔ has been granted, according to Reg. EU/1107/2009, a temporary approval in Greece for use on potatoes against wireworms for the 2024 growing season.

Cedroz, whose distributor in Greece is Eastman Chemical; Eden's commercial partner in a number of countries, will now be permitted for use on potatoes against wireworms.

Wireworms are the larvae of click beetles which cause damage to potatoes by forming a mass of holes and mini-tunnels on the vegetables. This pest is becoming increasingly problematic in many crops and regions, and farmers have very few options (most of them based on synthetic insecticides) to minimise its negative impact on the harvest.

The Wireworm-infected area of potatoes grown in Greece alone is around 5,000 to 6,000 hectares, meaning that there is a sizeable, commercial opportunity for Cedroz beyond its consolidated uses as a post-planting nematicide in horticultural crops.

Sean Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Eden Research, commented:

"The granting of this temporary approval indicates that there are no other commercially available, viable alternatives to Cedroz for this particular use.

We have seen in previous trials, and even under a previously granted temporary approval in Italy on wireworms, that the product works well and, as such, we are confident that there is a strong business case for this use."

For further information contact:

Notes to Editors:

Eden Research is the only UK-listed company focused on biopesticides for sustainable agriculture. It develops and supplies innovative biopesticide products and natural microencapsulation technologies to the global crop protection, animal health and consumer products industries.

Eden's products are formulated with terpene active ingredients, based on natural plant defence metabolites. To date, they have been primarily used on high-value fruits and vegetables, improving crop yields and marketability, with equal or better performance when compared with conventional pesticides. Eden has three products currently on the market:

Based on plant-derived active ingredients, Mevalone® is a foliar biofungicide which initially targets a key disease affecting grapes and other high-value fruit and vegetable crops.  It is a useful tool in crop defence programmes and is aligned with the requirements of integrated pest management programmes. It is approved for sale in a number of key countries whilst Eden and its partners pursue regulatory clearance in new territories thereby growing Eden's addressable market globally.

Cedroz™ is a bionematicide that targets free living nematodes which are parasitic worms that affect a wide range of high-value fruit and vegetable crops globally.  Cedroz is registered for sale on two continents and Eden's commercial collaborator, Eastman Chemical, is pursuing registration and commercialisation of this important new product in numerous countries globally.

Eden's seed treatment product, EcovelexÔ was developed to safely tackle crop destruction caused by birds - a major cause of losses in maize and other crops. Ecovelex works by creating an unpleasant taste or odour that repels birds, leaving the seeds safely intact and the birds unaffected and free to find alternative food sources. The product is based on Eden's plant-derived chemistry, registered in the EU, U.S. and elsewhere, and formulated using Eden's Sustaine® microencapsulation system.

Eden's Sustaine^® encapsulation technology is used to harness the biocidal efficacy of naturally occurring chemicals produced by plants (terpenes) and can also be used with both natural and synthetic compounds to enhance their performance and ease-of-use. Sustaine microcapsules are naturally-derived, plastic-free, biodegradable micro-spheres derived from yeast. It is one of the only viable, proven and immediately registerable solutions to the microplastics problem in formulations requiring encapsulation.

Eden was admitted to trading on AIM on 11 May 2012 and trades under the symbol EDEN. It was awarded the London Stock Exchange Green Economy Mark in January 2021, which recognises London-listed companies that derive over 50% of their total annual revenue from products and services that contribute to the global green economy. Eden derives 100% of its total annual revenues from sustainable products and services.

For more information about Eden, please visit:  www.edenresearch.com.