Casterra Announces Successful Commercial Field Trials in Brazil, Positioning Castor Oil as a Promising Candidate for Economically Viable Biofuel Feedstock

Today, castor oil is a premium sustainable industrial feedstock for bio-based products

REHOVOT, Israel, March 31, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Casterra Ag Ltd. ("Casterra"), a developer of high-yield castor seed varieties and integrated castor farming solutions, and a subsidiary of Evogene Ltd. (NASDAQ: EVGN) (TASE: EVGN), today announced successful commercial field trials in Brazil, highlighting castor oil as a compelling candidate for economically viable biofuel production. At present, castor oil is widely recognized as a high-value, sustainable feedstock for bio-based industries (lubricants, surface coatings, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, plastics, and resins).

Casterra's development efforts aim to reduce the farming cost of castor grains for oil production while maintaining farmer profitability. Success in these efforts will enable competitive castor oil pricing across applications, creating value for all stakeholders along the value chain.

The commercial field trials in Brazil confirm that large-scale, mechanized castor farming is economically viable using Casterra's advanced seed varieties across diverse growing conditions. These proprietary seeds, designed for mechanization and low-input cultivation, support profitable farming and offer further potential through optimized practices.

The field trials were conducted across 74 hectares of commercial farmland in the State of Bahia. Of this area, 64 hectares were grown under rainfed conditions, and 10 hectares were grown using center pivot irrigation. Total rainfall during the growing cycle amounted to 382 mm. The trials evaluated a range of plant populations and nutrient application rates. Comprehensive data was collected on all field operations, including nutrient and crop protection applications, enabling a full assessment of direct farming costs.

Building on these promising results, Casterra's 2026 operations in Brazil will concentrate on two key objectives: first, driving commercial penetration through the establishment of a local subsidiary and strategic partnerships with leading castor oil producers; and second, expanding castor farming trials across varied agricultural and climatic zones in several Brazilian states.

Mr. Yoash Zohar, CTO of Casterra, stated: "I am very satisfied with these results, which reaffirm Casterra's concept for developing economic castor farming. These results are a milestone in positioning castor as a sustainable and scalable feedstock for the growing biofuel and bio-based industries."

About Casterra Ag Ltd.: 

Casterra, a wholly owned subsidiary of Evogene, is empowering sustainable agriculture through elite castor seed varieties and the development of advanced castor farming systems. Casterra leverages advanced genomic capabilities (licensed from Evogene) with its global breeding network to deliver high-yield castor seeds for the bio-based industries, including biofuel. Building on its elite castor seed varieties, Casterra combines agronomic expertise to develop advanced castor farming systems worldwide, tailored to diverse growing conditions, supporting farmers and industries in achieving sustainable production goals while advancing bio-based solutions.

For more information, please visit http://www.casterra.co 

About Evogene Ltd.: 

Evogene Ltd. (Nasdaq/TASE: EVGN) is a pioneering company in computational chemistry, specializing in the generative design of small molecules for the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries. At the core of its technology is ChemPass AI^TM, a proprietary generative AI designed to explore vast chemical space and generate novel, highly potent small molecules optimized across multiple critical parameters. By integrating AI-driven molecular design with experimental validation, ChemPass AI™ enables the efficient discovery of differentiated small-molecule candidates with improved probability of development success. Built on this powerful technological foundation, and through strategic partnerships alongside internal product development, Evogene is focused on creating breakthrough products for the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries, driven by the integration of scientific innovation with real-world industry needs.

For more information, please visit www.evogene.com. 

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" relating to future events. These statements may be identified by words such as "may", "could", "expects", "hopes" "intends", "anticipates", "plans", "believes", "scheduled", "estimates", "demonstrates" or words of similar meaning. For example, Evogene is using forward-looking statements in this press release when it discusses castor oil as a compelling candidate for economically viable biofuel production, castor oil recognition as a high-value, sustainable feedstock for bio-based industries, the success of Casterra's development efforts aimed to reduce the farming cost of castor grains for oil production while maintaining farmer profitability and enablement to provide competitive castor oil pricing across applications and Casterra's success of operation in Brazil. Such statements are based on current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions, describe opinions about future events, involve certain risks and uncertainties which are difficult to predict and are not guarantees of future performance. Therefore, actual future results, performance, or achievements of Evogene and its subsidiaries may differ materially from what is expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond the control of Evogene and its subsidiaries, including, without limitation, the aftermath of the recent war between Israel and each of (i) the terrorist groups, Hamas and Hezbollah, (ii) Iran, and (iii) other regional terrorist groups supported by Iran, and any destabilizations in Israel, neighboring territories or the Middle East region,  and those other risk factors contained in Evogene's reports filed with the applicable securities authority, including but not limited to: important factors discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" in our annual report on Form 20-F filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on March 26, 2026, as such factors may be updated from time to time in our other filings with the SEC, which are accessible on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. In addition, Evogene and its subsidiaries rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties to conduct certain activities, such as their field trials and pre-clinical studies, and if these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, comply with regulatory requirements or meet expected deadlines, Evogene and its subsidiaries may experience significant delays in the conduct of their activities. Evogene and its subsidiaries disclaim any obligation or commitment to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or developments or changes in expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions. 

Evogene Investors Relations Contact:

Email: [email protected]
Tel: +972-8-9311901

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SOURCE Casterra Ag Ltd.