TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / April 22, 2020 / Toronto based CO2 GRO Inc. ("GROW") (TSXV:GROW)(OTCQB:BLONF)(Frankfurt:4021) is pleased to announce the installation of a CO2 Delivery Solutions™ Commercial Evaluation system and the completion of a first grow cycle at a Dubai, UAE based lettuce greenhouse. The Commercial Evaluation is being performed in a portion of the 75,000 square foot lettuce greenhouse. The first of a minimum three grow cycles has been completed on seven lettuce varieties to evaluate the CO2 Delivery Solutions™ impact on accelerating grow cycle time and biomass production.
This is the first potential Middle East customer that Gulf Cryo ("GC") has brought to GROW under the Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") announced previously on November 21st, 2019. The Commercial Evaluation system was installed in collaboration with GROW management, GC technicians and the customer's greenhouse personnel in early March 2020. GC and GROW also met with additional greenhouse prospects in the UAE who grow a variety of vegetables in both greenhouse and indoor vertical facilities.
According to GC's Elie Adaimy, Group Head Business Development and Innovation, "We are pleased with the Commercial Evaluation installation and yield results from the first grow cycle. The customer is a major opportunity for us to begin establishing CO2 Delivery Solutions™ in the Region and we are looking forward to completing the remaining grow cycles. The Middle East is a rapidly growing market for greenhouse food production and we expect CO2 Delivery Solutions™ to become the go-to technology for providing CO2 to greenhouse plants."
According to John Archibald, GROW's CEO, "Shortly after announcing our partnership with Gulf Cryo, we began working with this major greenhouse grower. Gulf Cryo's reputation and reach in the Middle East is extensive. We look forward to working with them to expand the demand for our CO2 Delivery Solutions™ in the Arab Gulf region."
UAE Greenhouse Market Potential
Only a small fraction of the UAE's 15,000 greenhouses can economically apply CO2 atmospheric enrichment by gassing due to rapid CO2 gas losses from excessive heat venting. GROW's CO2 Delivery Solutions™ enable these greenhouses to supplement their crops with CO2 via misting an aqueous CO2 solution directly on to plant leaves. For strengthening its resilience and sustainability, UAE authorities are strongly addressing food security. The Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) has committed 250 million euros to its AgTech incentive accelerator program. According to this article, "Due to the Covid-19 crisis and the necessity to attempt food self-sufficiency, the UAE Cabinet has established the Emirate Council for Food Security (ECFS) to stimulate food security activities in the country. The aim is to develop new projects in line with the National UAE Food Security Strategy looking to creating 16,000 job opportunities and increasing agricultural production by over 100,000 tonnes, achieving economic returns of some 5 billion euros and aligning the government's efforts with the water security strategy."
Consequently, the UAE is becoming a rapidly growing market for greenhouse food production attracting large investments from foreign and domestic companies. A recent example is Pure Harvest Smart Farms that raised $100M for greenhouse expansions in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait (click this article).
Visit www.co2delivery.ca for more information on CO2 Delivery Solutions™ or watch this video.
About Gulf Cryo
Gulf Cryo (www.gulfcryo.com) is the largest and oldest industrial gases company in the Middle East. It was founded in Kuwait in 1953 by the Al Huneidi family and has expanded over two generations to become one of the most successful companies in the Region. Gulf Cryo Group manufactures and supplies industrial, medical, food-grade and specialty gases to a wide range of industries across the Middle East with its more than 30 production and distribution sites operating in 12 countries, including all of the Gulf Region, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Turkey. Gulf Cryo also boasts of having the largest merchant Air separation & production capacity in the Region as well as an extensive distribution fleet with more than 140 road tankers and semi-trailers delivering product safely and reliably. Staffed by 1200+ multi-disciplined professionals, Gulf Cryo provide integrated and innovative solutions to all business sectors as Oil & Gas, Chemicals, Metallurgy, Glass, Metal fabrication, Food, Beverage and Healthcare.
About CO2 GRO Inc.
GROW's target markets are mainly the 50 billion square feet of global greenhouse space (USDA) and the highest value of the 4.62 billion acres of global cropland (USGS). While indoor gassing of CO2 to enhance crop yields has been practiced for decades, 85% of the world's greenhouses cannot use CO2 gassing economically due mostly to heat ventilation which causes the CO2 gas to escape. Outdoor growers cannot gas CO2 into the atmosphere to the ideal levels required of up to 1500 ppm.
GROW's CO2 Delivery Solutions™ naturally and safely dissolves CO2 gas into water creating an aqueous CO2 solution which is then misted directly on plant leaves. GROW has demonstrated improving crop yields by up to 30% with up to 30% faster growth. The CO2 solution's micro droplets create an aqueous film around the entire leaf surface, isolating the leaf from the atmosphere. This creates a diffusion gradient favoring CO2 transport into the leaf and other gases out of the leaf. Increased carbon availability enhances photosynthesis resulting in faster and larger plant growth. CO2 Delivery Solutions™ has been demonstrated on crops including cannabis, lettuce, kale, microgreens, peppers, flowers and medical tobacco. Growers everywhere can now supplement CO2 to their crops using CO2 Delivery Solutions™, increasing plant yields and profits.
Forward-Looking Statements This news release may contain forward-looking statements that are based on CO2 GRO's expectations, estimates and projections regarding its business and the economic environment in which it operates. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to control or predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements and readers should not place undue reliance on such statements. Statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update them publicly to reflect new information or the occurrence of future events or circumstances, unless otherwise required to do so by law.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
For more information, please visit www.co2gro.ca or contact Sam Kanes, VP Communications at 416-315-7477 or Michael O'Connor, Manager of Investor Relations at 604-317-6197.
SOURCE: CO2 Gro Inc.