CO2 GRO dedicated to increasing the growth and value of all indoor plants

• CO2 Delivery Solutions help greenhouses achieve up to 30% more plant yield
• Secures first commercial feasibility study in the EU with French ag firm PAT SA
• Now debt-free with a two-year financial runway

What CO2 GRO does:

CO2 GRO Inc (CVE:GROW) (OTCQB:BLONF) (FRA:4021) is dedicated to increasing the growth and value of all indoor plants using its advanced CO2 Delivery Solutions. 

For decades, the Toronto-based company has noted that CO2 gassing has only been used in expensive indoor sealed greenhouses that achieve up to 30% more plant yield. Higher yields are only possible if over 1,000 parts per million (ppm) CO2 levels are maintained throughout the year. 

Even expensive sealed greenhouses struggle to maintain these levels consistently throughout the year, as up to 50% of the augmented CO2 gas escapes from greenhouses naturally and even more escapes when the greenhouse is vented in warmer months. 

In response, the company developed its CO2 Delivery Solutions to help all greenhouses achieve up to 30% more plant yield consistently throughout the year. In addition, aqueous CO2 misting offers pathogen Perimeter Protection for plants by slowing the spread of micro pathogens such as E. coli and powdery mildew.

The company’s system naturally and safely dissolves CO2 gas into water without bubbles or pressure to create an aqueous CO2 solution which is then misted directly onto the plant’s leaves and shoots. The aqueous CO2 solution’s microdroplets create a micro-film on the leaf surface, isolating the leaf from the atmosphere. The diffusion gradient created favors CO2 transport into the leaf, regardless of the stomata.

Its CO2 Delivery Solutions has been demonstrated on crops including cannabis, hemp, lettuce, kale, microgreens, peppers, strawberries, orchids, and other flowers. Greenhouse growers everywhere that cannot gas CO2 can now add CO2 to their crops using CO2 Delivery Solutions, increasing plant yields and profits. As carbon taxes rise, sealed greenhouse growers that gas CO2 will have to pay more for their emissions. 

The system also offers these greenhouses the ability to supplement their plants with CO2 consistently throughout the year without emitting CO2 gas to the atmosphere and using up to 95% less CO2 through aqueous CO2 misting.

How is it doing:

In 2020, the company struck 18 CO2 Delivery Solutions sale agreements, three international marketing agreements, and a South American floriculture commercial feasibility study.

It also strengthened and increased its North American sales and support team while announcing a further 25 commercial feasibility studies across hemp, cannabis, orchids, lettuce, strawberries, roses, and peppers.

Halfway through 2021, the company is building upon last year’s momentum by adding additional marketing partners, new commercial feasibility studies, converting existing commercial feasibility projects into sales, and pursuing direct sales of smaller systems. It’s also building up its US sales force after tying up with a distributor.

The company marked the start of 2021 by selling a fourth CO2 Delivery Solutions to a repeat customer — a Canadian licensed cultivator who bypassed a commercial feasibility study by directly purchasing the system based on its solid reputation. 

CO2 also recently sold the system to a British Columbia-based licensed cultivator without a study and to a Canadian cannabis producer. In May, CO2 GRO turned a licensed cultivator and feasibility customer, Golden Peak Cannabis of New Brunswick, into a commercial customer. 

Currently, and beyond cannabis, the company is working with several commercial feasibility studies — it’s latest with partner Rika Biotech Ltd at a tomato greenhouse in the UK. The company recently launched such studies in Israel and South Africa as well as a second study with a Netherlands-based orchid grower.  

The company, just months ago, commenced its first commercial feasibility study in the EU with France-based Plant Advanced Technologies PAT SA. The study is directed at medicinal plants — a first beyond cannabis and hemp. 

In Canada recently, CO2 GRO started a feasibility study for its CO2 Delivery Solutions system at Prism Farms Ltd of Leamington, Ontario, and the Cucumber Man, a greenhouse grower in Alberta that’s looking for increased tomato fruit yield, reducing pathogens, and lower production costs. 

CO2 GRO also reported recently that its CO2 Delivery Solutions is achieving 20% more pepper fruit production, based on interim results from the treatment group versus control group over the first 10 weeks of the commercial feasibility, as measured by kilograms of fruits harvested, at the Hidroexpo pepper greenhouse facility in El Salvador.

In nearby Mexico, the company has been gaining a strong foothold thanks to its partner RanchoNexo who’s tasked with marketing and supporting the company’s CO2 Delivery Solutions technology in Mexico’s massive and protected agriculture market. CO2 GRO established its Mexican connections through the Canadian Technology Accelerator cohort program.

On the financial front, the company in late May said it anticipates “significant sales growth” in the third and fourth quarters of 2021. CO2 GRO, which is debt-free with a two-year runway, expects many of the feasibility studies to convert soon into bigger and better sales. 

Inflection points: 

• Advance company’s increasing global recognition
• Generate greater revenue in 2021 
• Sell CO2 Delivery Solutions systems in Mexico and US

What the boss says: 

Commenting on Mexico’s protected agriculture market, which is the second only to China’s, Aaron Archibald, vice president of sales and strategic alliances, said: “At 5.8 billion square feet it represents an enormous opportunity to market CO2 Delivery Solution to protected agriculture growers, all of whom we believe can realize substantial benefits from employing our unique and patent protected technology.”

Contact the author: [email protected]

Follow him on Twitter @PatrickMGraham

Story by ProactiveInvestors