BOCA RATON, Fla., Nov. 1, 2000 (PRIMEZONE) -- Experts in agriculture, strategic communications, and finance have joined the Board of Directors of Florida-based Champon Millennium Chemicals, just as the company is poised to introduce its Natural Chemical pesticides and soil treatment products to agricultural markets worldwide.
DAZITOL, the Company's patented, EPA-approved product, is positioned to replace methyl bromide in the marketplace worldwide as the preferred preplant soil treatment, two months before a gradual worldwide ban of the ozone-depleting gas reaches 50 percent.
Methyl bromide is used prior to sowing, seeding, planting or replanting over 100 cultivated crops to control soil-borne pests such as nematodes, soil borne fungi, insects and parasitic plants. Retail sales of methyl bromide for use as a soil treatment are an estimated $1.4 billion a year worldwide. The U.S. accounts for 37 percent of global sales of 107,574,000 pounds (1996 data).
Mike Espy, now an attorney with the law firm of Butler Snow in Jackson, Miss., defended U.S. agricultural interests against the phase out of methyl bromide when he served as Secretary of USDA during the first Clinton Administration. "No one wants to deplete the ozone layer," says Espy. "But there was no replacement for a chemical that is essential to the livelihood of tens of thousands of U.S. growers."
Tom Blank and Sidney Bostian also join founding Directors Louis Champon, Patricia Ashley, and Jonathan Slevin. Blank has served for the past three years as Corporate Officer and Vice President, Union Pacific Resources Group, was Director of Communications for Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, President of the Hager Sharp public relations firm, and Assistant Administrator, USAID, from 1986 to 1988. Bostian is CEO of the AFBA Industrial Bank, in Alexandria, Va.
"Due to the phase out of methyl bromide, we anticipate a very rapid market entry," says Louis Champon, company founder and technical director. "These directors provide us with the expert stewardship that we need to meet global market demand and to counter a serious threat to agriculture worldwide."
Due to provisions of the U.S. Clean Air Act and the 160-nation Montreal Protocol, production of methyl bromide-a widely used fumigant in agriculture and forestry-is being phased out because the gas depletes the ozone. The phase out began on January 1, 1999, reaches 50% on January 1, 2001, and becomes a total 100% ban of soil treatment usage in 2005.
Extensive government-sponsored and private sector research over the past decade has failed to come up with any alternative to the deadly gas. "We believe Louis Champon has developed, patented and registered a breakthrough technology," says Tom Blank. "We are very excited that the time has now come to put it to use in supporting growers and the principles of the Montreal Protocol."
The use of methyl bromide on tomatoes, strawberries, peppers, nursery, and grapes combined accounts for 65 percent of preplant usage. Seedbeds, tobacco, watermelons, plum and prune, and almonds account for another 25 percent of usage.
About Champon Millennium Chemicals, Inc.
Champon Millennium Chemicals was established to reduce or eliminate the economic hardship to growers due to restrictions and phase-outs of existing chemicals by introducing non-toxic Natural Chemical products. We are committed to protecting the interests of growers, farm workers, and consumers alike. Champon provides growers with commercially sound solutions to improve competitiveness by enhancing their roles as food providers and environmental guardians. Champon products are natural, non-toxic, meet the requirements of the Food Quality Protection Act and enrich the environment as they biodegrade into organic matter.
For more information, visit the web site at www.champon.com.
Certain information included in this news release, as well as information included in oral statements or other written statements made or to be made by Champon Millennium Chemicals, contain statements that are forward-looking. Such statements relate to plans for future expansion, various business development activities, planned capital expenditures, anticipated sales growth and potential contracts. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual operations or results to differ materially from those anticipated.