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Contact: Jake Mortensen, 530-750-0150 x 114, jmortensen@agraquest.com
AgraQuest Inc. Launches BARITONE™ Bio-Insecticide into U.S. Market
DAVIS, Calif. (Apr. 11, 2008) – AgraQuest, Inc., a leading provider of effective and safe pest management products, announced the launch of its new insecticide, BARITONE™ Bio-Insecticide. BARITONE will be available throughout the United States effective immediately.
Derived from the kurstaki strain BMP 123 of the naturally occurring bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), BARITONE is a microbial insecticide effective on lepidopterous insects, including loopers, armyworms and moths. This new strain of kurstaki Bt – which is just as effective as older kurstaki strains, yet less expensive to produce – is new to the U.S. market.
"With BARITONE we expect growers to see a per acre cost savings, while receiving the same control as they do from other Bt products," said Chris Coombs, VP North America for AgraQuest. "The introduction of BARITONE offers growers cost sensitive, yet efficacious, control of crop-destroying pests."
BARITONE is available in a wettable powder formulation and is registered on a broad spectrum of vegetables, fruit, ornamentals and turf in the U.S.
BARITONE marks the first insecticide product for AgraQuest; the company’s other products in the commercial agriculture market include fungicides SERENADE® and SONATA®. An insecticide targeting sucking pests is currently being reviewed by the EPA.
"AgraQuest is focused on meeting grower demand for unique product solutions that target fungal and insecticidal pests with excellent efficacy, while also providing improved resistance management, residue, environmental, and worker safety profiles," said Mike Miille, CEO-COO of AgraQuest. "BARITONE is the first in a series of new products that AgraQuest will bring to market."
About AgraQuest
AgraQuest is a biotechnology company that focuses on developing, manufacturing and marketing effective, safe and environmentally friendly natural pest management products for agricultural, institutional and home markets. The company sells SERENADE®, SERENADE® Garden, RHAPSODY®, SONATA® and BALLAD® fungicides. AgraQuest received the Presidential Green Chemistry Award from the EPA for the discovery and commercialization of SERENADE Biofungicide. In 2004, AgraQuest received a Red Herring Top 100 Private Company Award and the World Technology Award for the Environment. The company's headquarters are located in Davis, California.
Certain matters contained in the press release concerning AgraQuest, Inc. are forward-looking statements which are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties which may cause the Company’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the receipt of EPA and other regulatory approval of the Company’s products, the success of the Company’s products in field trials and the timely development, manufacture and marketing and acceptance of the Company’s products in the marketplace.