Yield10 Bioscience, Inc.

Hello and welcome to the third quarter 2023 financial results and business update conference call for YIELD 10 Bioscience. During the call, participants will be in listen-only mode. The presenters will address questions from analysts today. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference call over to your host, YIELD 10 Vice President of Planning and Corporate Communications, Lynn Brum. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Sarah, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the YIELD 10 Bioscience third quarter 2023 conference call. Joining me on the call today are President and CEO, Dr. Oliver Peoples, Vice President of Research and Chief Science Officer, Dr. Christy Snell, and Chief Accounting Officer, Chuck Hazzor. Earlier this afternoon, YIELD 10 issued our third quarter 2023 financial results. This press release as well as slides of today's presentation are available on the investor relations events section of our website at yale10bio.com. Let's turn to slide two. Please note that as part of our discussion today, management will be making forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance, and therefore you should not place undue reliance on them. Investors are also cautioned that statements that are not strictly historical constitute forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual risk to differ materially from those anticipated. These risks include risks and uncertainties detailed in Yield 10's filings with the SEC. The company makes, undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this conference call. And I'll turn the call over to Ali.

Thanks, Lynn. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining our call. Let's now turn to slide three. We're making solid progress in our technology and business plans to launch Camelina as a platform crop with a focus on the biofuel feedstock market and the high-value market for omega-3 oils. Using different Camelina varieties, both products can be produced in a closed-loop value chain, which encompasses contracting with growers and oilseed crushers and securing off-take agreements with end users for the different oils. Today, we'll provide an update on recent accomplishments in our camelina seed genetics to biofuel platform, our progress developing herbicide-tolerant camelina varieties, provide an update on our omega-3 camelina program, present third quarter financials, and rise key milestones. We will then open the call to questions. Let's now turn to slide four, progress on key 2023 business goals. Over the course of 2023, we've achieved numerous milestones on the path towards commercializing camelina as a platform crop for biofuels, deploying herbicide tolerance and producing high-value omega-3 fatty acids in camelina. In biofuels, our key commercial goal in 2023 has been to demonstrate the value chain from yield 10 camelina seed to commercial offtake of camelina grain to a customer. An important goal has been achieved. as we have generated cash proceeds from seed shipments to growers and from grain shipments to a biofuel player. In 2024, we intend to continue to deliver grain for use in biofuel based on the winter camelina core contracts we signed this fall. As this is a key area for partnership, we are continuing to progress discussions to form additional partnerships in biofuels. A year ago, we signed a one-year extension of our research and option agreement with Rothamsted to complete the omega-3 camelina program which had been delayed due to COVID restrictions in the UK. We've made good progress with our Omega-3 Chiamelina platform in 2023, including developing project timelines and a launch plan for the first product, EPA Omega-3 Oil. A few weeks ago, we announced that we've exercised our option to finalize an exclusive global commercial license with Roppenstead. Shortly thereafter, we announced the signing of an LOI for a partnership with BioMar Group, one of the largest aquafeed producers in the world, And I'm pleased to let you know that we have recently initiated seed scale of activities for the Omega-3 EP8 Camelina line in Chile. The EPA line produces up to 20% EPA in the seed oil. Going into 2024, we anticipate the production of pilot quantities of the purified EPA oil for business development purposes and potentially larger scale field production of EPA Camelina to support our commercial development activities. Let's now turn to slide five. establishing camelina production. Our business plan is based on using advanced genetics to develop camelina as a platform crop for producing oil, meal, and specialty products. Today, there is a significant opportunity in the biofuels market where vegetable oil is processed into sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel. Significant new demand for feedstock oils is being generated as new refineries are coming online and as new environmental commitments are being made to utilize these cleaner fuels across the globe. Based on our partner discussions, we believe the biofuel sector recognizes that there is going to be a divergence of supply and demand at some point, but it's not yet clear when exactly this will happen. For 2023, we contracted approximately 2,000 acres of winter and spring camelina for production in Canada and in the U.S. In Canada, we engaged growers in southern Alberta, in northern Alberta and the Peace River region, in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. In the U.S., we contracted growers in Idaho and Montana. We were very pleased with the level of grower engagement we had. Growers shared their insights on the crop, whether on farm practices or opportunities they see for how they could use the crop in the rotations, and comparative economics. In particular, the growers had strong positive feedback on the types of herbicide-tolerant varieties yield 10 is developing and how those could significantly expand the opportunity and add value for them. We were also very pleased with the performance of our current Campbellino varieties. For example, our WDH2 winter variety is very robust in cold temperatures, and planted seed shows a built-in fail-safe mechanism whereby if seed did not germinate in the fall, it survived winter and germinated in the spring. Both our winter and spring varieties require some moisture to germinate, but then demonstrate excellent drought tolerance over the growing season. For example, we had a 160-acre field in southern Alberta that received just 1.5 inches of rain over the entire season, but over twice the yield of neighboring mustard and canola crops grown under the same drought conditions. Camelina also showed good pest resistance, in particular to flea beetles and in some areas grasshoppers, which are pests in other oilseed crops such as canola and mustard. During the third quarter of 2023, our contracted growers harvested their winter and spring camel in the fields, setting in motion the steps in the value chain from planting, harvest, grain delivery to an off-date customer. The photos in this slide illustrate the steps of the value chain we established in Western Canada. In the third quarter of 2023, we contracted with existing and new growers and planted winter acres for harvest in summer of 2024. As you can see in the photo to the right, there's already been snow cover on that crop in Canada. The same closed-loop value chain can be used with our omega-3 camelina varieties for the production of omega-3 oils in the future. I will now turn the call over to Christy for an update on the development of HT and stacked HT camelina varieties.