Crop Enhancement Expands Leadership Team with Chief Business and Technology Officers 

Jean Pougnier joins agtech innovator as chief business officer, Dr. Damian Hajduk
moves to chief technology officer; Crop Enhancement’s CropCoat® product performs in field trials on coffee and almond crops

SAN JOSE, Calif.— Dec. 11, 2019: Crop Enhancement Inc., an innovator of sustainable agrochemical products that protect or enhance crop yields, has appointed Jean Pougnier as chief business officer. Mr. Pougnier will lead the company’s efforts to identify strategic partners and establish relationships with go-to-market partners and influencers that will position the company for maximum commercial success. As part of the expansion of the leadership team, Damian A. Hajduk, Ph.D. is promoted to chief technology officer from his former role as VP of research and development.

“With our initial product, CropCoat, continuing to prove its effectiveness in field trials, it’s time to accelerate on two key fronts: strategic go-to-market partnerships and product development. These important executive appointments enable Crop Enhancement to accelerate our commercial initiatives while ensuring we broaden our technical capabilities to address additional market opportunities,” said Kevin Chen, Ph.D., CEO of Crop Enhancement.

Mr. Pougnier has held leadership positions in the crop protection industry for more than 25 years and brings a solid track record of business and marketing leadership that includes 35 years at DuPont. He was most recently VP of business development at AMVAC. Prior to that role, he was the global business development and strategic planning director for DuPont’s multi-billion-dollar crop protection business, and eventually facilitated integration of part of that business into FMC in 2017. His exceptional understanding of the marketplace helped propel the DuPont business to anticipate market trends and outperform the competition. He also led the negotiation for several highly innovative licensing agreements involving DuPont’s novel blockbuster active ingredients, with the outcome of creating significant incremental revenues and earnings for DuPont.

“To address increasing market demand for sustainably grown food, and heightened regulatory pressure on synthetic pesticides, growers and farmers need new technologies to complement their existing approaches,” said Jean Pougnier, chief business officer of Crop Enhancement. “I am looking forward to connecting with leaders in the agrochemical sector to discuss how Crop Enhancement can help expand growers’ portfolio of crop protection approaches.”

Rounding out Crop Enhancement’s leadership team, Dr. Hajduk has been appointed chief technology officer. He joined Crop Enhancement in April 2017 and has been responsible for steering the company’s product development, regulatory, field, and manufacturing efforts. In his new role as CTO, Dr. Hajduk will direct all technology-related aspects to maximize the potential of the company’s existing platform while identifying opportunities to expand the company’s IP portfolio and develop new applications for the platform.

Crop Enhancement hits trial program milestones

These appointments follow several key milestones achieved in the company’s trial programs with its CropCoat® product, which enables growers to protect high value fruit, vegetable, and tropical crops through physical modes of action (MOAs). Recent highlights include:

Crop Enhancement’s products target annual crop values in excess of $100 billion worldwide. To protect or enhance crop yields in these regions, Crop Enhancement has developed proprietary films and formulations that modify plant surfaces (leaves, stems, fruit, and seeds) to improve their resistance to pests and diseases and decrease the need for synthetic pesticides and pesticide applications. Crop Enhancement’s formulations can also be applied with agricultural inputs like nutrients, fertilizers and other active ingredients, enabling farmers to precisely control their release, thereby reducing costs and improving yields.

About Crop Enhancement
We work at the intersection of materials science and biology to bring new and effective solutions to agriculture that help growers protect their crops and the environment, while meeting the global need for sustainably produced foods. Our investors include MLS Capital, 1955 Capital, Phoenix Venture Partners, Cavallo Ventures, and Bandgap Ventures. For more information, follow @CropEnhancement on Twitter.

Media contact:

Tim Cox, ZingPR, tim@zingpr.com, 650-369-7784

Crop Enhancement provides a pathway to improving how we grow food and will have a lasting impact on today’s food production chain. But what are the regulatory hurdles that must be overcome in order to get to market?

 

Today, I sat down with Jerry Hjelle, Ph.D, D.A.B.T., an expert in food safety and global regulatory affairs who is excited about the prospects for Crop Enhancement’s technology in different applications. Jerry is a member of the Crop Enhancement Industry Advisors Board and actively advises the company on global regulatory strategy.

Jerry is president of Hjelle Advisors LLC, a regulatory science, regulatory affairs, and research and development consulting network offering services and strategies for startups and early-phase companies. Previously, he worked at Monsanto from 1986 to 2015 in various director or vice president positions in Monsanto’s nutrition/consumer products and agricultural products businesses, including as vice-president of Regulatory and vice-president of Science Policy. In these roles, Jerry was involved with many breakthrough products including aspartame, neotame, glyposhate, and several agricultural and veterinary drug biotechnology products. Jerry’s complete bio can be found here.

What in particular interests you about Crop Enhancement?

Sustainable agriculture is a key interest of mine, and Crop Enhancement is dedicated to the pursuit of finding safer and sustainable approaches to pest management. Crop Enhancement’s technology is elegant, demonstrably safe, and addresses an unmet need to control economic insect pests and pathogens. As an advisor, I like to get involved with a company early on to shape the product strategy and ensure compliance with regulations in various countries. Making the right decisions early in the product development phase is very important — the business decisions a company takes today can ensure avoidance of wrong turns. That said, de-risking product development is critical at every stage, not just pre-launch.

What are the major trends shaping the regulatory landscape worldwide?

There’s mounting pressure on developers, regulators, downstream food companies and farmers themselves to grow and market safer products. Unfortunately, the complexity of how agriculture works and how we determine whether a product is safe for a particular use leads to confusion, and some groups use this confusion to sow distrust in science globally. In the case of pesticides, there are emerging alternatives to older, more toxic chemicals — and Crop Enhancement’s approach is both novel and safe. 

At the same time, consumers today have high expectations of corporate responsibility, and they are interested in having farmers of all sizes —not just the very big operations— implement sustainable operations. These factors are influencing the behavior of both companies and regulators, and those companies that focus on scientific breakthroughs to enable a lower ecological footprint will be valuable. 

Another trend we’re seeing is the emergence of trade wars. Should these escalate significantly, they may prolong time to market in affected countries. Although product launches occur one country at a time, the regulatory strategies to enable commercial success in one country can be determined by the approvals needed in importing countries.

Increasingly, food safety and local/international agricultural economies are intertwined. Ag is a large part of the economy for many countries—especially in the less developed countries—and so ag exports are increasingly important to governments and their regulatory bodies. For example, growers in one country may use pesticides that are legal domestically. However, in the country to which that food is to be exported, that same pesticide may be banned or may be acceptable at such low levels that disruptions in trade are a possible outcome. 

What’s driving the need for safe and ecologically friendly crop protection strategies?

Regulatory pressure is a key driver here, and it’s especially noticeable in two areas:

  1. Longer-term, there is a need for systematic removal of older pesticides that represent human applicator toxicity concerns, residue issues, or products that are more prone to be formulated or applied incorrectly (leading to human or animal poisoning or environmental damage). Over the years, companies have developed new chemistries to address these concerns and lower the so-called “pounds on the ground” application rates in order to lessen target effects. 
  2. Removal of specific pesticides from some markets after new data indicate adverse effects. For example, unexpected effects of chemicals on beneficial insects like honey bees has led to the EU’s decision to ban neonicotinoid-based pesticides.

What do you see as the implications for other pesticides and longer-term trends?

A key aspect of understanding the safety of pesticides, or any product for that matter, is a clear description of the dose required to produce toxicity and a well-defined intended use to allow an estimate of exposures. If the pesticide has low toxicity compared with the estimated exposure, then the product has a high safety margin. Some of the older, more toxic pesticides yield safety margins that are now too low when calibrated against the modern standards of leading regulatory agencies in the US, EU, Japan, and other countries.

Because of toxicology- and development-related costs, and regulatory review timeframes for a truly new active ingredient, only a handful of global companies have the capacity, from a resources perspective, to be successful. But regulatory agencies globally have developed guidelines that recognize that some products are inherently safer, based on mechanism of action and other attributes. Therefore, it is essential to build in the environmental and human health friendliness aspects into the entire R&D effort. 

The base technology that Crop Enhancement is developing accomplishes just that. It leverages an understanding of insect pest feeding behavior and critical application periods, and uses non-toxic ingredients that will be an important addition to the grower toolbox.

From a regulatory standpoint, what is the appeal of using a product such as CropCoat?

I think there’s a growing understanding that insect pest management doesn’t always have to involve neurotoxins or other mechanisms, but rather can leverage understanding of insect behavior using a more systems-based approach for crop protection. Also, the testing and securing approvals for new active ingredients or formulations is getting more complicated each year. 

Crop Enhancement’s products are formulated from components that are well understood, are of low toxicity, and are arguably much safer for the environment. Many regulatory agencies have specific testing and approval pathways for products or formulations that meet these characteristics. Although each country is somewhat different, most have easier paths to approval and market, and this is a key benefit of Crop Enhancement’s approach.

Q&A with Mike Wilbur, Kevin Chen on Cavallo Ventures’ Latest Bet

“With its investment, Cavallo Ventures aims to accelerate the development of Crop Enhancement’s breakthrough crop protection technology in the United States — particularly for the production of high-value fruit and vegetable crops.

CropLife chatted with both Mike Wilbur, President and CEO of Cavallo Ventures, and Kevin Chen, CEO of Crop Enhancement, on the background of the new investment, and what we can expect to see next with the company’s technology and marketing.”

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Cavallo Ventures Makes Strategic Investment in Crop Enhancement to Advance Sustainable Agriculture

 

The venture capital arm of Wilbur-Ellis–a recognized leader in the marketing and distribution of crop protection, precision agriculture technology, seed and nutritional products–aims to accelerate the application of sustainable crop protection technologies for high-value fruit and vegetable crops

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Jan 22, 2019: Cavallo Ventures, the venture capital arm of Wilbur-Ellis, has invested in Crop Enhancement Inc., an innovator of sustainable agrochemical products for enhancing crop yields. With its investment, Cavallo Ventures aims to accelerate the development of Crop Enhancement’s breakthrough crop protection technology in the United States — particularly for the production of high-value fruit and vegetable crops.

Crop Enhancement’s CropCoat® technology targets major fruit and vegetable crops across North America, Southeast Asia, Greater China, Latin America, Europe, and West Africa. To boost crop yield, Crop Enhancement develops proprietary films and formulations that modify plant surfaces (leaves, stems, fruit and seeds) to improve plants’ resistance to pests and diseases while reducing the need for synthetic pesticides and pesticide applications.

Crop Enhancement’s formulations can be applied with agricultural inputs such as nutrients, fertilizers and other active ingredients, enabling growers to reduce costs and increase crop yields. Beyond yield and profit increase, CropCoat improves grower wellbeing by supporting worker wellness and safety, as well as enabling growers to implement sustainable integrated pest management (IPM) techniques.

Wilbur-Ellis serves the needs of thousands of growers who are responding to the demands of food companies and consumers for sustainably produced foods by implementing IPM approaches that employ chemical as well as biological crop protection approaches for the production of high-value specialty crops. This investment reflects the efforts of Wilbur-Ellis and Crop Enhancement to address significant trends that are reshaping how the world produces food:

  1. A globally recognized need to carefully manage the use of crop protection inputs through stringent regulations that ban several classes of products known to harm the environment;
  2. Tighter restrictions on maximum residue levels (MRLs) on food products — in particular for imported products; and
  3. The powerful market force of hundreds of millions of consumers who demand sustainably produced foods.

“Growers around the world tell us that they want solutions that are good for their farms as well as the environment,” said Kevin Chen, Ph.D., CEO of Crop Enhancement. “In trials we’ve completed, our first product, CropCoat, is proving to be an effective and sustainable crop protection technology. As we expand our efforts to fruits and vegetables here in the U.S., we’re delighted to welcome Cavallo Ventures into the fold.”

“We’re glad to be able to back the Crop Enhancement team as they develop innovative solutions to long-standing challenges in production agriculture,” said Mike Wilbur, president and CEO of Cavallo Ventures. “Their unique approach addresses trends in the food and ag industry calling for products that are more sustainable and friendlier for growers, their farms and the global ecosystem.”

About Crop Enhancement
Crop Enhancement is a venture-backed agriculture technology corporation based in San Jose, California. Founded by renowned materials scientist and serial entrepreneur Dr. David Soane, Crop Enhancement is developing sustainable agrochemical formulations that employ advanced and environmentally friendly products to improve crop yields, reduce the need for synthetic pesticides and pesticide applications, and enable precise and effective delivery of active ingredients and fertilizers. Visit us at www.crop-enhancement.com.

About the Wilbur-Ellis Companies
Founded in 1921, the Wilbur-Ellis companies are leading international marketers and distributors of agricultural products, animal feed and specialty chemicals and ingredients. By developing strong relationships, making strategic market investments and capitalizing on new opportunities, the Wilbur-Ellis companies have continued to grow the business with sales now over $3 billion. www.wilburellis.com

Media contact:

Tim Cox, ZingPR, tim@zingpr.com, 650-369-7784

Cavallo Ventures Makes Seven Figure Investment In Pesticide Disruption

Cavallo Ventures, the venture capital arm of global agribusiness company Wilbur-Ellis, has just announced a seven figure investment in agricultural technology startup Crop Enhancement, Inc. The California-based company makes CropCoat, a unique protective coating being touted as an alternative to more toxic pesticides on the market.

“In trials we’ve completed, our first product, CropCoat, is proving to be an effective and sustainable crop protection technology, says Kevin Chen, Ph.D., CEO of Crop Enhancement. According to Chen, CropCoat works by creating a physical barrier to protect the plant from “biotic stress [like] insects and disease.” In the future, the company hopes CropCoat could also address stressors like drought and extreme heat.

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