Approval from the European Union for three natural pesticides has seen a Gloucestershire-based research company "start the new year with a bang."

Eden Research, who are based in the Priory Court Business Park near Cirencester, made an announcement to the AIM about the news.

The company "develop and supply breakthrough biopesticide products and natural microencapsulation technologies to the global crop protection, animal health and consumer product industries."

Three of Eden's EU-registered active ingredients: genariol, eugenol and thymol have all been approved for use in organic farming by the EU's Organic Production Regulation.

With organic agriculture experiencing strong and continued growth across the planet with a 70 per cent rise in the area of land under organic production in the last 10 years, it is an expanding market.

The EU is the second largest consumer of organic products with the annual value of the market worth in excess of €34billion.

The Eden announcement said: "Organic farming covered 12.6 million hectares of agricultural land in the EU Member States in 2017, equivalent to 7 per cent of the total utilised agricultural area.

"Eden's products will provide organic growers with the high levels of efficacy often associated with conventional chemical pesticides, thereby providing the Company's growers with another alternative and sustainable solution.

Sean Smith, CEO of Eden Research said: "We are very excited by this approval for EU organic farming as this opens up a new commercial opportunity for Eden which is relevant to all of the products that we have developed and continue to develop using our three EU registered active ingredients.

"It is clear that there is growing demand from consumers within the EU for organic products and this is matched by rapidly growing production.

"Consequently, areas assigned by EU Member States for organic agriculture have grown by 70% in the last ten years* with organic retail sales reaching €34bn in 2017."

Eden reported revenues of £2,774,272 for the year to December 2018, their latest financial results - a significant increase of 33 per cent in the previous 12 months.