Portfolio Updates

PLANT IMPACT PLC ANNOUNCES TRIAL RESULTS

28 September 2007

RisingStars investee, Plant Impact plc, a global developer of technologies that improve crop productivity by combating the negative effects of environmental stress, has announced the first results from its fresh tomato field trial programme. The trial, conducted in Spain, using a combination of Plant Impact's CaT and PiNT technologies, demonstrated an increase in marketable tomato yiled of between 36% and 48% as well as a reduction in the incidence of blossom end rot from 30% to 8%, when compared to the standard grower practice. Other beneficial trial observations were increased fruit homogeneity and increased fruit setting.

Peter Blezard, CEO of Plant Impact commented, "The excellent results from our trials in Spain clearly demonstrate the ability of our technologies to acheive significant yield increases for one of the world's most valuable horticultural crops. They will also give our sales distribution partners the test data they need to hel them persuade growers about the economic, ecological and environmental benefits that our technologies offer".

This trial suggests that the use of Plant Impact technoolgoies on fresh tomato crops could result in increases in profitability for the grower of between $1,500 and £2,000 per hectare.

The global fresh tomato market for Plant Impact's CaT and PiNT technologies has an estimated current value of $120 million and is expected to grow, due to the increasing demand for fresh tomatoes and the more unpredictable climatic conditions being experienced in the areas where they are grown.

Tomatoes are believed to represent one of the most important horticultural crops in terms of world production and trade. The EU is the biggest single producer of fresh tomatoes, followed by the USA, then Turkey. Within the EU, Italy is the biggest producer by far, followed by Spain, greece, Portugal and France. Between them Italy and Spain grow almost 9.5 million tonnes of tomatoes a year.

Tomoato blossom end rot is a physiological disorder that is caused by a lack of calcium in the fruit. Unlike traditional products, Plant Impact's CaT technology overcomes the problem efficiently and specifically reducing the amount of agricultural inputs applied to the plants, significantly improving marketable yield to the grower and provising consumers with better quality tomatoes.

Plant Impact has a distribution agreement in place with Certis Europe BV ("Certis") which supplies Plant Impact's 'anti-stress' products in Spain and Portugal. Certis has a network of over 50 local distributors who supply approximately 75,000 growers in the Iberian peninsula. In addition, Plant Impact achieves sales in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region through its distribution subsidiary Pi-MENA.

For further information, please see the company's website at www.plantimpact.com