Cultiva, a manufacturer of proprietary biofilm produce coatings, received a $3.95-million investment through the Nevada New Markets Tax Credit program to bring production in-house at its Las Vegas production center.

“Our products provide safe, natural and innovative crop protection solutions that increase growers’ yields and quality on harvested fruit and vegetables,” said Luis Hernandez, CEO of Cultiva. “By moving the manufacturing process closer to our headquarters in Nevada, we will be able to better control the quality of our product, increase productivity and expand our product development.”

Cultiva offers a food-grade biofilm technology, known as SureSeal, a specialized coating that provides growers with a solution to suppress fruit cracking, enhance quality traits of harvested fruits and vegetables, and extend the marketable shelf life of high-value crops. Cultiva’s biofilm products are used as substitutes for conventional wax-based chemicals. All of its current products are exempt from U.S. EPA-approvals or registrations due to their safe, natural and soft nature and their classification as non-pesticide products, company officials said.

The New Markets funding will finance the transfer of Cultiva’s production process from an out-of-state, third party vendor to an internally-run production facility located in Las Vegas, company officials said.