Lavie Bio Announces Expansion of its Bio-Inoculant Product for Spring Wheat, Yalos™, to Durum and Barley

Lavie Bio will offer Yalos™ (formerly Thrivus™) to farmers growing spring wheat, durum and barley across the US and Canada in 2024

 

Rehovot, Israel — November 28, 2023 — Lavie Bio Ltd., a subsidiary of Evogene Ltd. (Nasdaq: EVGN, TASE: EVGN), a leading ag-biological company committed to elevating food quality, sustainability, and agricultural productivity through microbiome-based innovations, is pleased to announce the expansion of its microbiome-based product for spring wheat, now rebranded as Yalos™ (formerly Thrivus™), to include durum and barley, significantly broadening its potential market reach. This expansion follows very successful field trials conducted in the US in 2023 in durum and barley, which generated on average over 7% of yield increase. Yalos™ is a seed treatment that enhances production by improving soil nutrients, reducing environmental stress, and increasing yields. It aims to boost yield in all small grains, starting with spring wheat, durum, and barley.

 

The 2023 trials exceeded expectations with 86% success rate, surpassing industry standards in extensive large-acre trials. Yalos™ demonstrated its efficacy by delivering an average production improvement of 8.3% in Durum and 6.6% in Barley. This expansion increases the product’s addressable market in the US and Canada by ~40% from 25 million acres to 35 million acres.

 

Yalos™ combines two natural microbes discovered by Lavie Bio’s advanced BDD platform, powered by Evogene’s MicroBoost AI tech-engine. This platform provides deep insights into microbe functions, allowing Lavie Bio to develop a strong portfolio of high-performance, cost-effective bio-inoculants and bio-pesticides like Yalos™.

 

Chad Rubbelke, owner at Rubbelke Farms asserts Yalos™ has been impressive on our farm.  As a farmer and research provider it is unusual to see a product perform as well as Yalos™.

Yalos’s performance has been consistent over several different environmental conditions and years. In my mind Yalos™ is a strong competitor in the biological market and pays for itself yearly.”

 

“We are very satisfied with these results from our 2023 field trials enabling us to offer our product to durum & barley growers in 2024.” states Amit Noam, Lavie Bio’s CEO, “As Lavie Bio charts its course for 2024, the company remains dedicated to commercial growth by expanding to additional crops across the United States, Canada and beyond. Lavie Bio continues to lead the agricultural innovation frontier, championing sustainable practices and enhancing crop yields.

 

About Lavie Bio Ltd.

Lavie Bio, a subsidiary of Evogene Ltd., aims to improve food quality, sustainability, and agriculture productivity by introducing microbiome-based ag-biological products. Lavie Bio utilizes a proprietary computational predictive platform, the BDD platform, powered by Evogene’s proprietary MicroBoost AI tech-engine, harnessing the power of big data, artificial intelligence, and advanced informatics for the discovery, optimization and development of bio-stimulant and bio-pesticide products.

For more information, please visit www.lavie-bio.com.

 

About Evogene Ltd.

Evogene (Nasdaq: EVGN, TASE: EVGN) is a computational biology company aiming to revolutionize the development of life-science-based products by utilizing cutting-edge technologies to increase the probability of success while reducing development time and cost. Evogene established three unique tech-engines – MicroBoost AI, ChemPass AI and GeneRator AI – leveraging Big Data and Artificial Intelligence and incorporating deep multidisciplinary understanding in life sciences. Each tech-engine is focused on the discovery and development of products based on one of the following core components: microbes (MicroBoost AI), small molecules (ChemPass AI), and genetic elements (GeneRator AI).

Evogene uses its tech-engines to develop products through subsidiaries and strategic partnerships. Evogene’s subsidiaries currently utilize the tech-engines to develop human microbiome-based therapeutics by Biomica, ag-biologicals by Lavie Bio, ag-chemicals by AgPlenus, medical cannabis products by Canonic and castor varieties, for the biofuel and other industries, by Casterra.

For more information, please visit www.evogene.com.

 

 

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” relating to future events. These statements may be identified by words such as “may”, “could”, “expects”, “hopes” “intends”, “anticipates”, “plans”, “believes”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “demonstrates” or words of similar meaning. For example, Evogene and its subsidiaries are using forward-looking statement in this press release when it discusses Yalos™ ability to enhance production by improving soil nutrients, reducing environmental stress, and increasing yields. Such statements are based on current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions, describe opinions about future events, involve certain risks and uncertainties which are difficult to predict and are not guarantees of future performance. Therefore, actual future results, performance or achievements of Evogene and its subsidiaries may differ materially from what is expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond the control of Evogene and its subsidiaries, including, without limitation, the current war between Israel and Hamas and any worsening of the situation in Israel such as further mobilizations or escalation in the northern boarder of Israel, and those risk factors contained in Evogene’s reports filed with the applicable securities authority. In addition, Evogene and its subsidiaries rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties to conduct certain activities, such as their field-trials and pre-clinical studies, and if these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, comply with regulatory requirements or meet expected deadlines, Evogene and its subsidiaries may experience significant delays in the conduct of their activities. Evogene and its subsidiaries disclaim any obligation or commitment to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or developments or changes in expectations, estimates, projections, and assumptions.

 

Evogene Investors’ Contact:

Rachel Pomerantz Gerber, Head of Investor Relations at Evogene

Email: rachel.pomerantz@evogene.com

Tel: +972-8-9311901