Treatment against honeybee varroosis based on highly effective application of oxalic acid through sublimation

Project Information

BEEOXAL

Grant agreement ID: 781067

DOI

10.3030/781067

Project closed

EC signature date 14 July 2017

Start date 1 August 2017

End date 30 November 2017

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

SAGAVET SOLUCIONES S.L.
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BEEOXAL (Treatment against honeybee varroosis based on highly effective application of oxalic acid through sublimation)

Reporting period: 2017-08-01 to 2017-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

There are no effective medicaments to combat varroosis, a harmful pest for bees that can damage irreversibly the whole hive. Current drugs and application methods can be harmful for beekeepers or even compromise honeybee products. On the contrary our medicament composed by oxalic acid, BEEOXAL, offers a complete treatment against varroosis (effectiveness above 96%) while being harmless. The application method of BEEOXAL (pellet form) with our sublimator ensures a homogeneous spread of the medicament through the hive easily, affordably and in less than 2 minutes.
BEEOXAL will directly contribute to an adequate treatment of honeybee exploitations critical to maintain the honey production and perpetrating the ecosystemic services of pollinators in the EU. BEEOXAL is currently at TRL7 having successfully tested the medicament and an early version of the sublimator.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

We have analyzed BEEOXAL from 3 different points of view. Technically, we analyzed the steps needed to formulate, compact and produce BEEOXAL pellets and to reach a final design and manufacture BEEOXAL’s sublimator. We have contacted key stakeholders to accomplish all steps and register and distribute BEEOXAL in the targeted countries. We have found no conflict to operate and commercialize a veterinary medicament. We have revised costs for target countries. We can confirm the commercial feasibility in the identified sectors. We will use SAGAVET, BIOPYC and BEEVITAL wide network for our target markets in Europe. We have reached collaborators, such as beekeeper associations, which will disseminate our product. Financially we have evaluated the total investment for the project in 1M€ and an estimated gross margin of 1.45M€ by 2022. We forecast a ROI of 3.03 which validates our financial business model.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

We will keep improving the application method to achieve lower production costs that can translate into lower prices for beekeepers while maintaining the offered features. We have approached our main technical and commercial stakeholders. During the feasibility study we have collected several letters of interest. As varroosis is a wide spread concern among beekeepers, BEEOXAL has an enormous market potential within the honeybee sector (professional and non-professional beekeepers). Thanks to our solution we will offer a veterinary drug that will treat effectively varroosis (above 96%) preventing losses while applying a harmless drug quickly. We will create 4 job positions related to BEEOXAL project.

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