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Sameer S. Joshi, H.C. Wainwright & Co, LLC, Research Division - Associate [17]
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Yes. No, I did note that. And even before, I saw that slide. One of the questions I had was, were the Venerate sales or other, what was the geographic distribution of the Venerate sales for the quarter?
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Pamela G. Marrone, Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. - Founder, CEO & Director [18]
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Kevin?
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Kevin Austin Hammill, Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. - Chief Commercial Officer [19]
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Yes. This is Kevin. The majority of the Venerate sales was a combination of -- in the U.S. between the -- our foliar business and our seed and soil business. So it's a combination and a blend of both of them, but mainly in the USA.
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Sameer S. Joshi, H.C. Wainwright & Co, LLC, Research Division - Associate [20]
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Okay. So just continuing the geographic discussion. I know you have initiatives in South Korea, Brazil and Argentina. Can you provide some color on how those initiatives are going? And do you expect sales from all these respective regions of the world going forward?
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Pamela G. Marrone, Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. - Founder, CEO & Director [21]
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No. We did mention last quarter -- was it last quarter? Yes, last -- or this quarter, that we got expanded label in Brazil. So that then will -- for Regalia, that will -- our revenue will start kicking in there. And we are moving along very successfully with registrations in some of those countries that you named. So while we're not seeing the effect dramatically yet, we do expect to see more of that influence in the latter part of this year and into next year.
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Kevin Austin Hammill, Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. - Chief Commercial Officer [22]
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Yes. This is Kevin again. And we're really -- there's 3 pillars that we're looking at in terms of how we're diversifying outside of the USA. The first one is, we've done a deep analysis of the market attractiveness. How does the market needs and sales potential line up with our product costs and market-entry adoption? The second is regulatory approval. Meeting regulatory requirements of each individual country is a little bit of a challenge, but the regulatory team is working hard to gain these registrations in key countries. And then our go-to-market strategies. So the third key is how is our international team working with the channel partners to understand their local market and have the ability to create market demand and sales in countries. So when you combine these 3 pillars together, we see a great opportunity to expand outside of the USA by looking at the market attractiveness, regulatory approval and our go-to-market strategy. We're actively doing that right now.
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Sameer S. Joshi, H.C. Wainwright & Co, LLC, Research Division - Associate [23]
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Understood. Moving to some financial questions. I noticed that the accounts receivable is actually higher than the revenues this quarter. Is it because of any timing issues? Most of the sales happened in the latter half of the -- later part of the quarter? Or is it that there is long lead times in paying?
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James B. Boyd, Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. - President & CFO [24]
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No. I think it's just the general business and additions to -- it's our biggest quarter, and I think that moved AR up by $6 million. But I think it was applied evenly in the quarter.
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Sameer S. Joshi, H.C. Wainwright & Co, LLC, Research Division - Associate [25]
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And I was not very clear on the operating expenses going forward. The $8.6 million level, are you expecting that to stay the same? Or how should we look at OpEx going forward?
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James B. Boyd, Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. - President & CFO [26]
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Well, I think we mentioned -- this is Jim. I think we have talked about it in the past that we -- in the past, tightly control of our operating expenses. But a couple of quarters ago, we indicated that we were going to invest in the commercial function and in accelerating a couple of what we think might be breakout products, our oversight and our super managers team. And that we would be doing that over the course of the year in 2019. So I think the level of operating expenses in the first quarter reflects that investment that we're making in both our commercial function and accelerating our pipeline.
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Sameer S. Joshi, H.C. Wainwright & Co, LLC, Research Division - Associate [27]
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Understood. And one last one I promise. Can you comment on the opportunity in your entrance into the cannabis and hemp markets? Any color on that?
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Pamela G. Marrone, Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. - Founder, CEO & Director [28]
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Sure. It's interesting that a new study by BDS Analytics came out that's at the hemp market. So this should be CBD products. It's $1.8 billion today, and it's going to hit $20 billion by 2024. And so we've been making strategic investments in that space by having some dedicated sales staff, which Kevin can comment on in a minute. And the other thing is we got our Regalia match registration in Canada. And Regalia is one of the best -- well, we think it's the best product for powdery mildew, and we tried it in some of the other diseases that occur in cannabis. So that's an exciting milestone. And likewise, we also got California approval or listing of Venerate as well for Canada. So Kevin, do you want to take that?
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Kevin Austin Hammill, Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. - Chief Commercial Officer [29]
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Yes. There's not much to add there, but I just want to reiterate that cannabis and hemp fall into our broader portfolio that we call cultivated gardens, which is basically the green housing and covered market. And we see a good uptick and great fit for our products in this segment. And as we look at in further registrations going forward, but we also -- as Pam mentioned, we have dedicated sales force to this area to drive this opportunity and take advantage of it.
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Operator [30]
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We'll now take our next question from (inaudible) with Zacks Investment Research.
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Unidentified Analyst, [31]
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Congratulations on a splendid first quarter. A question on the -- not the seasonality but the type of conditions in Canada for the cannabis crop. I understand that a lot of the market out there is in greenhouse space. Is that correct? And then are the pest profile the same as it would be for the cannabis grown in United States?
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Kevin Austin Hammill, Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. - Chief Commercial Officer [32]
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Yes. This is Kevin again. To answer your first question -- the last question first is, the pest profile is very similar between the U.S. and Canada for the greenhouse market. The -- recently, we announced that we actually set up 2 distributors in Canada to manage this market. Our planned products, who have a primary base in Eastern Canada just outside of Detroit. And Terralink, who primarily serves the western Canadian market. So we set them up to service this whole cannabis market. And right now, we're just doing the finalization of our labels and packaging to get aggressively into this market and penetrate it as soon as possible.
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Unidentified Analyst, [33]
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Okay. Both of those distributors do have listed the Regalia on their product slate for sale currently. Is the specifications as a product going to change?
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Kevin Austin Hammill, Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. - Chief Commercial Officer [34]
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No. But what you can -- nuance in Canada is that you have to get -- once you get your label approved, then you have to -- then you start printing your label and packaging your product. So we're just going through that process right now, and it should be available for sale in the next 7 to 10 days in Canada. But you can legally post on your website the label based on what is approved, what's on the PRMA -- PMRA in Canada, which is the regulatory body in Canada.
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Unidentified Analyst, [35]
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Okay. Going back to the product mix in the first quarter of this year versus the first quarter of last year, what were the changes in the crops treated that had a significant impact on the revenue growth?
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Kevin Austin Hammill, Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. - Chief Commercial Officer [36]
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Well, there is probably 3 different areas. If I look back at some research last year in our foliar business, the uptake in -- with Regalia and almonds was quite significant this year based on our promotion and focus on that area to grow in there. And secondly, also in almond, right now, we're seeing a great uptick in this program of putting Venerate in with the standard products or standard chemistry from the growers for navel orange worm control. Some of the -- last year, you would not have seen in any Venerate -- almonds and Venerate in the market research information. Now that is our #1 crop because we've put a huge focus behind this initiative. So that's one area, the foliar business and primarily in almonds in California. The second area is in our soil treatment business. We also increased our focus with -- in our soil treatment business. Now we're seeing some early adoption with our Majestene programs here in the first 4 months. And then finally, this is probably our first full planting season for a seed treatment business, and so we're seeing an uptake of the expansion and success we're having in the seed treatment business as in our first full season. And as Jim mentioned, seed production is mainly in the fourth quarter and first quarter. So that part -- contributed part of that product mix.
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Operator [37]
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We'll now take our next question from Robert Smith with Center for Performance Investing.
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Robert Smith, [38]
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Any particular weather-related impacts in the first quarter or in the current quarter?
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Kevin Austin Hammill, Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. - Chief Commercial Officer [39]
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This is Kevin again. There the team is probably rain. And so as we look at -- and I'll be repeating myself a bit, but I'll break it into basically 3 different markets. In the almond market, as I mentioned, we saw an uptick of market share whether Regalia for bloom spray. This is partially offset by a little bit lower rate reduction because they switched to aerial application to -- from ground rigs because they could not get the Regalia on the ground rigs. The California fruit and vegetable market was delayed planting because of the rain, but we see and that's progressing well, and we're actually seeing some good progress with their insecticides and fungicides in that market. As you know, the Midwest row crop growers are under extreme rain and flooding and our first thought goes out to them, and hopefully, they can get dry weather. Right now, we're not too concerned about this. And the reason is that there is a stat out there that takes about 14 days to plant the entire USA corn crop. And so we believe that if we get some dry weather, there's going to be ample runway or ample time for them to get all the corn acres they have planned to put in and all the soybean acres they've planned to put in. So right now, not a major impact to our business by our thoughts and hope for dry weather for our growers going forward here.
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Robert Smith, [40]
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Any kind of comments on 014 and Zequanox?
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Pamela G. Marrone, Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. - Founder, CEO & Director [41]
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Sure. We're as excited as ever by 014. And what the R&D team is doing now is really focused on commercial applicability to all the things that we need to do to have a strong launch when it gets approved by EPA for both organic as well as conventional and conventional mixtures with other products. So -- and then we're doing the things that we do with each -- every product in terms of getting it ready for launch. In this case, we have chosen to invest a little bit more so we can have it even more effective for conventional when we launch. And as far as Zequanox, we're also still very excited by the potential of Zequanox. We have -- we're still focusing on 2 areas, which is pipe treatment in industrial power plants and also open water. And we have activities going in both areas. So we have customers like a big power plant in Illinois that we've been treating this season. So continuing a pipeline of customers. And Kevin and team have night -- a program that's designed to increase adoption in the pipe treatment area. And then we're working on the Great Lakes restoration. The government bodies and NGOs are still very keen on using Zequanox to treat parts of the shores of the Great Lakes, and we'll be making product to do some treatments this year. I don't know, Kevin, if you had any -- no? Okay. Do you want any comment on that? No? Okay.
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Robert Smith, [42]
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All right. And just finally the cannabis and hemp barrier seems to be moving so quickly and there's so much publicity about it, is there any way for you guys to get some association in the press? Or the commentary on field itself as far as being a player?
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Pamela G. Marrone, Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. - Founder, CEO & Director [43]
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We -- I actually have got a number of interviews in Cannabis Times and other things, and we've been in some of the key cannabis press late -- earlier this year. We'll continue to focus on how biologicals can really help in this segment because a lot of -- they don't allow any chemicals in this and -- in cannabis and that we have a great, great products for this segment.
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Operator [44]
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That does conclude our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Ms. Marrone for any additional or closing remarks.
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Pamela G. Marrone, Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. - Founder, CEO & Director [45]
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Thank you, again, for joining us for the first quarter earnings call. While we're pleased with the start of the fiscal year, we are pressing hard on our strategic efforts to optimize our existing portfolio, expand our market reach and accelerate the potential of our R&D pipeline. Of course, as we continue to prudently invest for growth, we're working to effectively manage costs and working capital and conserve operating cash. Again, our thanks, and we look forward to speaking with you further about the potential of Marrone Bio Innovations. Thank you.
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Operator [46]
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Thank you. That does conclude today's conference. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect.