Market Applications
Frost & Freeze Protection
Overview
AgroShield, LLC has developed a proprietary non-toxic chemical compound used to protect ornamental, garden and other household plants as well as commercial cash crops from damage caused by frost and freezing temperatures. The compound is composed of polymers that when applied to plants and commercial crops create a thermal barrier around the plant or crop. The revolutionary compound drastically reduces plant/crop damage from frost and freezing temperatures. The non-toxic compound has the potential to permit earlier planting and later harvesting cycles, thereby permitting more than one harvest per growing season to occur on a farm. This benefit allows commercial farms to significantly increase their productivity (yield) per acre planted.
Technology
The compound is composed of "smart polymers" that, when applied to the surface of a plant, release heat over a range of dropping ambient temperatures beginning at about 33 degrees Fahrenheit. The compound also provides a layer of insulation which will retain the naturally heat generated within the plant structure. The compound affords greater protection to the plant by creating two thermal barriers: one created by the composition, and the second resulting from the retention of the heat naturally generated by a plant within the polymer barrier created by the compound. Additionally, the composition depresses the freezing point of water that condenses and/or collects on the plant surface subsequent to application of the product.
Because of its unique mode-of-action, the compound has the potential to become a break-through technical solution over the current methods available to growers of freeze sensitive crops. Such high value crops include strawberries, apples, peaches, berries, grapes, citrus trees and tobacco, just to name a few.
Consumer Market
Current methods for protecting crops include spraying water over the crop foliage, using large fans to move the cold air away from the crop, or chemical sprays to cover the leaf surface. Such methods can only protect plant leaves and flowers down to 6 degrees below freezing. The unique heat releasing affect of the compound has the potential of protecting plants to levels of 15 degrees Fahrenheit below freezing.
Current Practices
Farmers of high-value commercial crops such as strawberries, citrus (including oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit and tangerines), apples, berries, grapes, peaches, almonds and tobacco presently use a variety of methods to limit the potentially devastating damage caused by frost and freeze. The practices adopted by commercial farmers can be segregated into two general categories:
- Passive methods - Passive methods involve processes such as site selection, variety and rootstock selection (that is, planting cold-tolerant crop varieties) and cultural practices (such as pruning and floor management) that do not require expenditure of outside energy sources during the frost-freeze event.
- Active methods - Active methods replace or prevent radiant heat loss by using methods requiring outside energy when commercial crops are threatened during a frost/freeze event. These methods generally include: films, covers or chemicals that protect the plant from the cold; heaters placed in orchards to warm the air; and large wind towers (windmills) that move the cold air and replace it with warm air.
It has been demonstrated, in peaches for example, that the majority of the freeze damage caused to fruit flowers occurred beyond 6 degrees below freezing.
| Stage of Bloom Development | Apples | Peaches |
|---|---|---|
| Pink Flower Stage | 24 Degrees Fahrenheit | 15 degrees Fahrenheit |
| Bloom Flower Stage | 25 degrees Fahrenheit | 21 degrees Fahreheit (early bloom) |
| Post Bloom | 25 degrees Fahrenheit | 25 degrees Fahrenheit |
AgroShield's product innovations have clearly defined applications in the consumer, ornamental plant, segment of the industry. As previously described, the Company is not aware of another technology or other methods for consumers (homeowners) to protect their ornamental plants.
Market Potential
The Company believes its technology is applicable to both the consumer ornamental, garden and other household plant market and the commercial agricultural market segments.
Consumer/Household Market Segment
- The Company believes that only consumer/household products based on polymer technologies will effectively protect ornamental, garden and other household plants against frost and freeze damage. The Company does not believe that the use of irrigation systems, heaters, windmills or similar practices would be cost-efficient for the everyday consumer.
- The Company anticipates that its initial efforts to commercialize products developed from the polymer technology will focus on the consumer/household market segment.
- Consumers spent nearly $40.7 billion on garden-related products in 2001, soaring 12.1% from $36.3 billion in 2000, with the average U.S. household spending $444 on lawn and garden goods in 2001.
- While 80% of all U.S. households bought something for their lawn and garden, the prime market for garden today is middle-aged, affluent home-owners. "The garden market is increasingly morphing into a luxury market targeting consumers with incomes of $75k or more.
Commercial Market Segment, Commercial Farms & Nurseries
- In 2002, there were approximately 938 million acres of farmland in the United States, and the value of the crops produced in the United States was approximately $95.1 billion.
- Only approximately 35% of the total United States farm crop value is covered by insurance.
- The 1997 total United States crop loss was approximately $6.5 billion, of which an estimated $840 million was a direct result of frost and freeze damage.
- Based on the United States crop loss total, the Company believes that the worldwide crop loss from frost and freeze damage could be as high as $2.5 billion in 2002.
- The Company anticipates that commercial nurseries, with a market in the United States of nearly $11 billion, also form an important part of the Company's commercial market.
- Gardening has become the second most popular leisure activity in the country - second to walking - according to New York-based Scarborough Research. In fact, the National Gardening Association (NGA) reports that most American households (80 percent) tended to plants last year, up from 64 percent in 1996.
- The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates consumer spending on indoor houseplants at more than $6 billion in 2000, up 58 percent since 1990. But outdoor plants and landscaping are far bigger businesses, which Bruce Butterfield, the director of research at the NGA, pegs at over $46 billion in 2001, and increasing at about 5 percent a year.
Plant Dehydration and Drought Protection
The principal factor affecting the shelf life of cut flowers and produce is the rate at which these products dehydrate. To the extent the dehydration rate can be slowed, the shelf life of these products can be extended. The mode-of-action of the compound, the same mode-of-action that protects against frost, will retard the dehydration rate of these products.
- In 1997, The USDA estimated that 47% of all damage to plants is caused by drought and heat stress to plants.
Wound Care
The properties required of the compound for frost and dehydration protection are identical to the properties required of certain medical applications for which there are no suitable, commercially available, alternatives. Further information on these applications is available upon execution of the Company's confidentiality/non-disclosure agreement.
Wound Care and Bandages
The Company has conceived and filed intellectual property on a novel method for the protection of open wounds such as burns and bed sores. This wound mechanism provide patients with much a needed sterile coating that never has to be removed. This embodiment allows for new / rejuvenated skin to grow through the wound covering.
- The global wound care market encompasses millions of people. Worldwide, an estimated 12 million people suffer from chronic ulcers every year. In addition, an estimated 7 million patients hospitalized develop pressure ulcers. The treatment costs for skin ulcers vary widely, depending on the severity of the wound, and range from $7500 to $30,000 per case.
- Large body surface injuries, as is the case in serious burn patients, present an additional challenge to heal. For burn wounds, the annual number of hospitalized patients is about a million worldwide, with an additional 7 million outpatients. In the U.S.A., the incidence of burns is 2.5 million persons per year, 650,000 of whom require treatment by a physician on an outpatient basis, and 100,000 of which require hospitalization. These include 20,000 major burns involving more than 25% of total body surface area.
Market
The global wound care market encompasses millions of people. Worldwide, an estimated 12 million people suffer from chronic ulcers every year. In addition, an estimated 7 million patients hospitalized develop pressure ulcers. The treatment costs for skin ulcers vary widely, depending on the severity of the wound, and range from $6,000 - $25,000 per case.
Large body surface injuries, as is the case in serious burn patients, present an additional challenge to heal. For burn wounds, the annual number of hospitalized patients is about a million worldwide, with an additional 7 million outpatients. In the U.S.A., the incidence of burns is 2.5 million persons per year, 650,000 of whom require treatment by a physician on an outpatient basis, and 100,000 of which require hospitalization. These include 20,000 major burns involving more than 25% of total body surface area.
Technology
AgroShield, LLC has filed a variety of patents on a method or protecting and healing wounds, specifically bed sores, burns and other large surface wounds. The company anticipates working with the University of Southern Mississippi Polymer Science Center and a large burn center to develop and test a variety of advanced wound care bandages.
Competitive Advantage
Growers of high value crops currently use a variety of cultural practices to deal with the potentially devastating effects of frost/freeze damage on crops. Passive methods -- involve cultural practices such as planting cold tolerant crop varieties and selecting planting sites offering reduced exposure to the threat of low temperatures in the spring or fall. Active methods - involve the use of direct actions when the crop is threatened by frost damage. These may include: films, covers or chemicals that protect the plant from the cold; heaters placed in orchards to warm the air; large wind towers that move the cold air and replace it with warm air from above.
| Method | Advantages | Disadvantages | Approximate Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
HeatersUsed in orchards to raise temperatures |
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Wind MachinesUsed to replace cold air with warm air from higher elevations |
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IrrigationCrop foliage is sprayed with water. Water released heat as it freezes |
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ChemicalsCryoprotectant are sprayed on foliage to release heat and protect plant tissue. |
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