Plandai Biotechnology, Inc., a producer of highly bioavailable plant extracts for industries including health, wellness, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical, today announced arrival of the first shipment of factory equipment to its production facility in South Africa.  The processing line will be used in the Company’s proprietary extraction process, which produces botanicals with a higher degree of bioavailability than other botanical phytonutrients on the market. Installation, calibration and testing of the equipment is expected by August with the processing and extraction facility expected to be ready for the first harvest in November 2013. 

“Shipment of this equipment is an important first step in the ramping up of production at our production facility in South Africa,” said Roger Duffield, Chairman and Chief Executive   Officer of Plandai Biotechnology.  “With distribution agreements already in place, we are looking forward to increased production as levels of tea leaf harvesting increases.” 

Plandai Biotechnology, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, farms over 7,500 acres of luscious land in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa.  The Company is currently farming 1,000 acres of tea bushes, increasing to 2,200 acres over the next five years. In published USDA studies, Plandai’s proprietary plant extracts, including PhytofareT Catechin Extract, PhytofareT Glucoside Complex and PhytofareT Carotenoid Extract, have shown to have improved bioavailability – the degree to which a substance becomes available to the target tissue after administration – of between 60-80%, far exceeding anything available today.  Superior levels of bioavailability simply mean that the body can actually receive the benefits promised on the product label. 

The Company believes that its technology is the foundation for creating an entirely new family of botanical drugs that can treat a multitude of diseases and conditions safely and affordably using naturally-derived extracts.