Botry-Zen's remedy starts to bud

By LIAM DANN

The success of a product improvement programme means listed biotech minnow Botry-Zen will be able to keep its manufacturing base in New Zealand, says its chief executive John Scandrett.

Botry-Zen, one of the of the companies fostered by the late Howard Paterson, has developed a biological control for the grape-rotting disease botrytis.

Yesterday the company confirmed that, after months of research and testing, its new granulated version was commercially viable and its shares rose nearly 30 per cent on the news to close at 13c.

The new version has a shelf life of more than six months compared with the original frozen paste version, which lasted just six weeks.

As well as making the product significantly more user-friendly, the breakthrough meant that it could now be manufactured in New Zealand for export, Scandrett said.

This would hopefully mean the development of new local export industry.

Plans were now under way to expand the company's production plant in Dunedin in order to have the granulated product available for the local market in September and for the Italian market by May next year.

Italian interest in the product was already strong, Scandrett said.

Italian growers of grapes, kiwifruit and other berry fruits were looking for biological fungicides that fitted with new trends in integrated fruit production, he said.

Botry-Zen was in the process of finalising partnership agreements with foreign companies to help cover the cost of trials and registration in Europe and California.

Potential partners would also be involved in marketing and distributing the product.

It didn't make economic sense for Botry-Zen to try and set up its own distribution networks in Europe for just one product, Scandrett said.

Interest in the product had been so strong that potential partners had contacted Botry-Zen directly rather than the company having to seek them out, he said.

It was hoped that the first of the partnerships would be in place within the next three months.

Potential partners might bring new capital to help fund increased manufacturing capacity, although these details were still being worked through.

Scandrett said that other capital raising possibilities were also being explored.