Vancouver, BC, Canada and Breda, the Netherlands – Organto Foods Inc. (TSX-V: OGO, OTC: OGOFF, FSE: OGF) (“Organto” or “the Company”), an integrated provider of organic and value-added organic fruits and vegetables today announced that it has added fresh organic fairtrade bananas to its growing product portfolio.
Product will be initially sourced from growers in the Dominican Republic, and will be available on a year-round basis. Additional supply regions, leveraging Organto’s sourcing resources and relationships in Latin America, are expected to be added to supplement initial supply and expand year-round capabilities. Initially Organto will supply bananas in a variety of sizes and in both loose and bunched formats.
“We are excited to add fresh organic fairtrade bananas to our growing portfolio, as we continue our efforts to build out an ethics driven one-stop shop for fresh organic fruits and vegetables. Organic bananas are a large and growing category, and we feel we can bring added-value to consumers with our unique branded I AM Organic digital passport technology.” commented Rients van der Wal, Co-CEO of Organto and CEO of Organto Europe B.V. “With consumption opportunities both at home and on-the-go, bananas are a great fit for our diversified product portfolio. We believe that demand for organic fairtrade bananas will continue to grow as consumers seek out great tasting and convenient foods combined with the unique health benefits that bananas provide including digestive and heart health.”
Organto is targeting to grow sales of organic bananas to an approximate CDN $5.0 to $7.0 [*1] million annual run-rate over the coming years, with the objective of increasing the organic banana category to annualized revenues of approximately $25.0 million as the Company builds out its supply sources and expands its customer base over time.
Grant of Stock Options
Organto also announced today that it has granted 150,000 stock options to an employee and service provider, as per the terms of the Company’s Stock Option Plan, at an exercise price of CDN $0.43, with 20% vesting immediately and 20% on each anniversary thereafter. The options granted have a term of five years.
*1) Forecast is based on shipping organic bananas an average sales price ranging from CDN$1.40/kg to $1.60/kg of sold product. We anticipate sourcing products from a number of suppliers and countries including, but not limited to the Dominican Republic.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD,
Steve Bromley
Chair and Co-Chief Executive Officer
