Roots has its incredibly cool tech working hard in the UAE to get coffee growing in places where roasting would be far more likely. Pic via Getty Images.
Food & Agriculture
It’s more business out of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for Roots, the Aussie-listed ag-tech announcing an additional purchase order for the firm’s proprietary HEPS (Heat Exchange Probes) cooling technology.
In what’ll be an exciting confirmation for Roots Sustainable Agricultural Technologies (ASX: ROO) executive, one of the firm’s major customers – and one of the Middle East’s top agricultural innovators – Elite Agro has come back for more of what HEPS is delivering in some of the toughest growing climates in the world.
The critical second consecutive sale into the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) market is going to ring all kinds of alarm bells in a competitive sector and will be taken for a cracking validation of the effectiveness of the Australian-listed technology.
ROO’s so-called HEPS cooling system has been created and refined for literally nurturing sustainable roots in the fiercest of environments. And none are more unlikely than the UAE.
The Roo heat exchange system is now commercially producing successful growing environments across the UAE, where outside temperatures are happily rising above 45°C by midday and loitering with intent until the sun is setting.
This second purchase order from Elite Agro will start to move the books for ROO, generating additional revenues of $US108,000 (~$160,000) and bringing total same-customer revenues for CY2022 to more than AUD$300,000.
From a distance, these are numbers which will look like baby steps indeed, but for global producers facing harsher climate conditions and apparently growing worse by the year, securing return purchases from major Middle Eastern customers as technically proficient as the United Arab Emirates is certain to generate a lot more than revenue.
Agro is an established multi-channel agriculture business headquartered in the UAE, which serves a diversified client base across the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, the European Union (EU) and other markets.
ROO says that the latest deal will see Elite Agro take receipt of a second shipment of the HEPS technology to facilitate an expanded root-zone cooling solution for its suite of commercial agriculture operations including the Coffee House Murmum project.
Established as a major coffee production hub to service the Emirates, its neighbours and expanding adjacent markets, the Coffee House Murmum project is a giant. And a massive challenge.
It comprises more than 18,000 coffee plants which need to be maintained in the scorching weather conditions outside of Dubai.
In this case, the HEPS tech has been designed to meet the unique requirements of coffee, which have a notoriously shallow root system where most roots concentrate around the drip irrigation area.
The Roots system is designed to cool the root-zone area with the insertion of two HEPS per pot, maintaining an optimum temperature range under 30°C.
Boaz Wachtel, ROOTS’ CEO and Chairman says the HEPS technology has been shown to provide an effective cooling solution for these kinds of plants at a massive commercial scale.
Roots secured the first sale of its HEPS technology to Elite Agro in mid-August after an extensive collaboration and, according to the CEO, opens the door to an exciting new market opportunity in the wake of the Israel-UAE free trade agreement.
“The successful rollout of HEPS for the Coffee House Murmum project resulted in tangible benefits to Elite Agro’s growing operations, and this additional purchase order will allow the client to deploy HEPS more widely across their growing operations,” Wachtel told Stockhead.
“The follow-up order by Elite Agro, which has established one of the leading commercial agricultural operations in the UAE, marks an important validation of the HEPS cooling system following its initial deployment by Elite Agro in the second half.”
Wachtel says Roots will receive an initial 15%, then 55% upon shipment, 20% upon installation; and 10% after one year against the final acceptance certificate.
This article was developed in collaboration with Roots Sustainable Agricultural Technologies (ASX: ROO), a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
Food & Agriculture
Food & Agriculture
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