Rory Riggs: All right. Once again, I’ll take a shot and I’ll let Peter correct me. It’s piece by piece. So in rice, we expect, and we’ve said this that we expect in late ’25 to be in a point to that in the Latin American parties that they would have these, their crops back and be positioned to launch. And what we’ve said is that those crops would start to be launched in ’86 and solely progress in the subsequent years. In canola, we’ve been pretty clear that new seed is moving, and we expect them to have a have the first planting this year and to grow and then the other companies are working through their process. And so it’s hard to work through the actual cadence of them. And in Europe, we needed to find a European approval. But I think we’ve said all along that we think that ’28 is the year that we see of our 3-legged stool, all these traits starting to come together.
Operator: Our next question comes from Steve Byrne with Bank of America.
Steve Byrne: Kind of a broad question about the rice traits and the soybean traits as you look to expand globally outside of the U.S. I have two questions on that. One is, do you have concern about protecting the intellectual property, could that gene-edited germplasm in some other country end up being cultivated by somebody that you didn’t contract with? And the other question being, do you have concern about getting paid for it in some of those countries, particularly if the crop is saved, the seed is saved, like, for example, soybeans in Brazil, the transgenic traits end up getting, they get checked by the green handler. And if they’re detected, then they can charge for it and then that’s shared with the seed companies. Is that some mechanism that was developed because the seed is saved? Do you have concern for that if it’s not a transgenic trait, it’s a gene edited trait?
Rory Riggs: Those are great questions. And you probably guess, Steve, that I’m going to let Peter answer those. Is that fair?
Peter Beetham: Thanks, Rory. Steve, it’s a great question and an important question. We understand as you go into certain markets that there are risks associated with losing genetics, not just the trait, but genetics that contain the traits. And we are working with partners that understand this very well. And also based on their contracts, we’re working very closely with them, both on the payment of the royalties, but we’re also working closely with them and understanding the genetics and how to control the genetics, including to the point with rice now, where it’s moving in most countries of the world, but including the U.S. and Latin America are for hybrid production. So you’ve got this protection from a business standpoint, you’ve got protection from a genetic standpoint with hybrids.
But then we also have a really strong patent portfolio that we will continue to expand not just in the U.S. but in other regional markets where applicable. And I think that, so we really take this seriously and so do our customers. And as we go through and launch this material, we’ll be very quick to make sure that we do get paid for our trait. One last comment because you brought up endpoint royalty. And I think that’s a really astute point with what’s happened in soybean, it’s happened in canola. It’s happened in wheat in various countries around the world. And it will continue to be, I think, adopted by a lot of countries. So as you bring value to the market, whether it’s traits like we do or quality that the value will come back to the developer and the seed companies.
Steve Byrne: That’s helpful, Peter. And one more for you. HT1 and HT3, are you able to describe what are the target weeds or mechanism of action? And maybe more importantly, can you implement that trait in other crops beyond rice?
Rory Riggs: It’s right, Peter, why don’t you take a shot at that?
Peter Beetham: Okay. So let me start with the second part of the question. So we can definitely for some of these herbicide tolerant traits move it into other crops. We’ll use the same edits for other crops. And so that’s the beauty of gene editing is really understanding the mechanism for a particular herbicide linked to the genes in the plant. So that answer is yes to the second part of your question. The first part, there are two herbicide tolerance solutions that are not available currently in the marketplace. And so that’s the exciting part for rice farmers is because, as I mentioned earlier, first of all, it’s very expensive to control weeds. And so we’re providing these just two solutions for controlling weeds that will reduce the cost to the farmer but create value for the seed companies and ourselves.
The, both HT1 and HT3 are also targeting hard-to-control weeds. So some of the weeds that have been in, particularly in the U.S. market where we’ve spent most time we’ve recognized some of hard to control weeds like red rice and being able to control those for farmers is now a really important, great attribute of both HT1 and HT3.
Rory Riggs: And Steve and Peter, the good thing on soybean is our customers are the same customers who have the GMO-based traits. And so they’re already working in those countries on those traits. We don’t have anybody really like GDM is our primary customer right now in Latin America who doesn’t have familiarity with the process.
Operator: We have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Rory Riggs for closing comments.
Rory Riggs: Thank I’d like to, and the way I started, we’ve had an amazing quarter in our progress. And really, the progress is not only with the traits themselves, but we are extensions of the seed companies, and we’re so excited that the seed companies themselves are working with us and trying to develop this new era. And I think that’s as big a topic. And although the questions are tough in Europe, the fact that Europe actually made a vote that said this was good really has set us, we think, is a point of inflection around the world for improving this. So we’re pretty encouraged now that not only do we have the corporation is all working with us, the seed companies are working with us, but that we’re going to have a good approval rate around the world for gene-edited traits, and that’s really what we needed to really set off this whole field.
So that’s why this has been a great quarter. Otherwise, just thanks for listening to us, and we look forward to hitting a few more milestones in the next quarter. Thanks. Wade you can drop off.
Wade King: This concludes today’s conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.
