River Bioscience, based in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and Oro Agri, a Rovensa company based in Lisbon, Portugal, have signed an agreement for the development and exclusive distribution of River Bioscience patented NPV product, effective against tortricids, including codling moth and oriental fruit moth.
As part of the agreement, starting in Europe, River Bioscience will be the notifier of the active substance authorization in Europe and Oro Agri will be responsible for the efficacy studies, implementation and registration of the formulated product in Europe. For now, the framework agreement covers exclusive distribution in Europe, with a potential to expand to U.S., South America and various countries outside Sub-Saharan Africa.
Cryptophlebia peltastica nucleopolyhedrovirus (CrpeNPV) is a proprietary patented product developed and produced by River Bioscience for control of tortricid pests including Cydia pomonella (codling moth) on pome fruits and walnuts; and Grapholita molesta (oriental fruit moth) in stone fruits. The CrpeNPV overcomes all known types of resistance of codling moth, resulting from CpGv based insecticides, which represents an ideal fit for resistance management programs with other sustainable crop protection inputs.
Oro Agri has been working with the development of the patented CrpeNPV baculovirus for the past two to three years and found it to be the right tool to supplement its current IPM solutions. The first registration will be introduced in Europe with a low-risk biological profile expected and will be used as a competing or alternate strategy to the CpGV products currently being used in the market. Alternating strain strategies will assist in combatting resistance concerns and ensure consistent efficacy.
Agreements between the U.S. and South America and various other countries outside Sub-Saharan Africa will follow shortly.
Read the NOV/DEC 2022 issue of New AG International, free to view here