I know that point has been brought up here before, and understand what you are saying, but I believe there may be a bit of a misconception regarding the purpose and significance of this process.

Here is my understanding:

1) The customers DO NOT rely on Bioagra's certification that a product is what it is claimed. The process of having each customer perform testing and confirming quality and reslts is what has has delayed volume sales. As Geoff and Kent have also pointed out, there are multilpe field trials and lab tests being conducted at major universities with Agricultural testing labs, right now. Some have already been concluded. Nobody is going to spend millions of dollars on something they haven't had independently analized and tested. I know I wouldn't. AHD has done its own analysis and due diligence.

2) The Lowenkamp certification is a quality assurance process to let the customer know that the plant is not just set on auto-pilot and the end result is packaged and shipped. Each batch is tested to determine that it is up to Bioagra's standards, so that if there were ever to be a substandard batch go through, Bioagra would be aware of it and correct the problem before any of it was shipped. This is a Q.A. issue.

3) Though probably irrelavent, I believe it is possible that you may have either overestimated Lowenkamp's role, or underestimated his stature. Lowenkamp has a long history with the federal and even international bureaucracy that has established a reputation that he is not going to tarnish by shoddy certification. Lowenkamp has government contracts to inspect and test contents of containers entering the Port of Savannah. He has a reputation to uphold, and the Q.A. testing of Agrastim is only a very small part of what he does. I believe Lowenkamp's credentials assure Bioagra of Q.A., but are only a minor selling point to the customer.

4) Bioagra does not just crank out product, stick an Agrastim label on it with a "certificate", ship it out and expect the customer to be okay with that. AHD's contract, for example, says that Bioagra will provide product according to the specifications of THE BUYER. It further states that if any product is shipped that is found to be sub-standard, the manufacturer incurs the expense of returning it, and replacing it, including shipping. I suspect that AHD has similar clauses in contracts with its own customers, to whom it will subsequently supply the product purchased from Bioagra.

The quality is specified in the purchase order. If the quality is not up to the standards specified (presumably verified by the customer on a regular basis) Bioagra is in default of the contract. I believe that the Q.A. certification by Lowenkamp is intended to set up a process where, after a while, the agricultural customer may feel comfortable "spot checking" for quality, after a history of quality has been established, and knowing Bioagra is testing every batch.

5) Even with a "money back guarantee", receipt of substandard product could seriously disrupt the customer's supply chain and be very costly to the customer. The promise of certification of each batch assures the customer that Bioagra has a mechanism in place to prevent substandard product ever leaving the plant. That does not suggest that the customer would still not want to independently confirm the integrity of the product on a regular basis. It simly says, "here's what we do to assure ourselves we are shipping you the good stuff, becase we understand how important your supply chain is to your business, and we want you for a customer for a LONG time." This is an important selling point.

I suspect that the specifications for product intended for the nutraceutical industry might be far more restrictive than those of the agricultural industry. If Bioagra can satisfy the Q.A. requirements of AHD, it will help establish Bioagra's reputation throughout the industry as having consistently high purity. Apparantly both AHD and Bioagra are convinced that quality can be guaranteed.

-zties