As we approach the end of the year, I want to take a moment to thank all the people of Afrikelp® for their hard work and dedication to our purpose. I also wish to thank our partners for their support, and our customers for their loyalty to our products.
The biostimulant market, including kelp products, is growing and Afrikelp ® is resourced and committed to continuously provide trusted seaweed solutions to assist agriculture in sustainable food production.
This year, growers all over the world have again faced enormous and changing environmental, logistic, political and economic challenges impacting their production. Our contribution in assisting farmers to overcome these pressures and improve their sustainability remains relevant and important. Without our focused, dedicated team and extended network with our partners, this would not have been possible. We have continued to deliver on our promise to provide standardised innovative products which show consistent reliable value and returns, harvest after harvest. Our extensive quality control process ensured that every batch of our products meets exceptional standards to ensure that we continue bringing the best the ocean has to offer to growers.
This year has been challenging in many ways but one of our highlights was to move into brand new premises with state of the art laboratories, a fit for purpose upgraded manufacturing plant, grow rooms for more inhouse science, and increased warehousing to match our growth trajectory. We have already had many South African, European and South American visitors and are very excited to host more visitors as the word spreads further around the globe to more markets, partners and end users.
This year we also delivered significant results from our investments in data and research in line with our science centric strategy. The results contributed to the wealth of data we now have available to support our customers. We were privileged to present some of our latest science at the National Maize and Soybean Congress to over 1,000 farmers and are so pleased that we are making an impact on so many hectares of food production in South Africa.
We also have quality relationships with certified independent research institutions that assist us in conducting trials, together with our own experienced agronomists, to extract valuable information. These trials are essential in improving application timings and dosages and optimising the performance on new varieties and hybrids as trends change.
As we look ahead to 2024 and beyond, I am hopeful that more and more like minded people will become aware of their impact on the planet and slowly our isolated efforts will snowball into the necessary change that is unquestionably required for our planet to survive healthily into the future. I am confident that we will continue to grow and thrive as a company, and I am looking forward to working with you all to make our goals a reality.
To all those working hard at real sustainability, thank you all for your grit, support, partnership, hard work and dedication. I wish all our partners, and the people of Afrikelp, a happy and healthy holiday season with their families, and a prosperous new year.
