• Planting Hope has partnered with Alarcon Enterprise Limited to bring Hope and Sesame^® Sesamemilk into key Asian markets, including Hong Kong and Macau
• Hope and Sesame^® Sesamemilk won the Best Plant Milk Award at the Hong Kong LOHAS 2023 Natural, Organic, and Green Living Expo, February 3-5, 2023

CHICAGO, IL and VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2023 / The Planting Hope Company Inc. (TSXV:MYLK)(OTCQB:MYLKF)(FRA:J94) ("Planting Hope" or the "Company"), a plant-based food and beverage company focused on producing the world's most nutritious and planet-friendly products, is pleased to announce that the company has started to distribute its Hope and Sesame® Sesamemilk range in Hong Kong and Macau through a partnership with Alarcon Enterprise Limited. Through Alarcon, Hope and Sesame^® exhibited at the Hong Kong LOHAS Natural, Organic, and Green Living Expo 2023 February 3-5, and its Unsweetened Sesamemilk won the show's prestigious Best Plant Milk Award.

"We are thrilled to take the first step to expanding Hope and Sesame^® Sesamemilk into Asia with Alarcon," said Julia Stamberger, co-founder and CEO of Planting Hope. "We have received strong interest in sesame milk from the Asian market, a very large market for plant milk given high percentage of dairy intolerance across the population, where sesame is important in the cuisine and culture. Hope and Sesame^® Sesamemilk has comparable nutrition to dairy milk and soy milk, but unlike soy, sesame is not a GMO crop. With its rich creamy texture and pleasant taste of ‘fresh sesame,' Hope and Sesame^® Sesamemilk is poised to succeed in the Asian market."

According to Food Navigator Asia and data from research consultancy Transparency Market Research, the dairy alternative market in APAC is expected to reach $20B USD by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 10.7% .

Planting Hope's new Sesamemilk distribution partner, Alarcon Enterprise Limited, specializes in hospitality and specialty distribution, with a client list that includes five-star hospitality partners across Macau and Hong Kong, from The Ritz-Carlton to Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

"We are extremely excited to be introducing Hope and Sesame^® Sesamemilk to the Asian market," said Teresa Chiu, General Partner, Alarcon Enterprise Limited. "It's exactly what our customers are looking for: a plant-based milk that's rich in nutrition, good for them and good for the earth, with a delicious creamy taste and texture."

Sesamemilk has a comparable nutritional profile to dairy milk, with 8g of complete plant-based protein per serving and is an excellent source of Vitamin D and a good source of calcium. Sesame is extremely planet-friendly to farm, thriving in dry conditions with few inputs including a limited amount of water; sesame is naturally pest-resistant, self-pollinates, and is an excellent cover crop. Hope and Sesame® Sesamemilk, which uses the ultra-nutritious pulp from sesame oil production as a core ingredient, recently announced that it has received Upcycled Certification from the Upcycled Food Association; upcycling is a rapidly growing area of sustainability interest for Asian customers.

"Our customers care about the earth, and they care about sustainability. Hope and Sesame^® Sesamemilk ticks every box our customers have for the ‘next big thing' in plant milk and performs like a dream in coffee - I can't overstate the interest in sesame milk for tea and coffee beverages we saw at the Hong Kong LOHAS Expo," said Teresa Chiu. "Sesamemilk fills a significant market gap and opportunity in the APAC consumer market, which is hungry for better plant-based choices. We're proud to partner with The Planting Hope Company and Hope and Sesame^® Sesamemilk and look forward to building out the Sesamemilk market in Hong Kong and Macau together."

Hope and Sesame^® Sesamemilk and the 2023 LOHAS Expo were featured on local Hong Kong TV, clip available at this link: Hope and Sesame^® Sesamemilk at Hong Kong LOHAS Expo 2023 - February 3-5

About Hope and Sesame^®
Hope and Sesame^® has cracked the code on unlocking the dense nutrition in tiny sesame seeds to create a plant milk that's good-for-you, planet-friendly, and delicious! Sesame is highly sustainable, thriving in arid climates with very little water, is naturally drought- and pest-resistant, and can self-pollinate. Nutritionally comparable to dairy milk, Hope and Sesame^® Sesamemilk delivers 8g of complete protein per serving (including all nine essential amino acids) - that's 8x the protein in most almond and nut milks and 2x the protein in most oat milks! Developed for and approved by top baristas, Hope and Sesame^® Barista Blend Sesamemilk froths, steams, and foams like a dream, is great for latte art, and delivers 4g of complete protein per 8oz serving. Sesame milk is an excellent source of both vitamin D and calcium, and its core ingredient is the ultra-nutritious pulp upcycled from sesame oil extraction. All Hope and Sesame^® products are vegan, Certified Gluten-Free and Certified Kosher, free from soy and dairy, Non-GMO Project Verified, and Certified by the Plant Based Foods Association. Hope and Sesame^® Sesamemilk is the only plant milk globally with Upcycled certification from the Upcycled Food Association. Available in both refrigerated 48 oz bottles (three flavors) as well as shelf-stable long-life recyclable aseptic cartons (seven flavors, including Barista Blend) in both US and Canadian bilingual packaging.

Hope and Sesame^® products have received myriad industry and consumer awards, and they keep coming: Hope and Sesame^® Barista Blend Sesamemilk was awarded Best Novel Creamer by Good Housekeeping in their 2022 Best Coffee Awards, won Best Product at Coffee Fest Chicago 2022, received the international Gama 2022 Innovation Award for Best Hospitality Product, and was a finalist for Best Product of the Year at the 2022 Specialty Coffee Awards; Hope and Sesame^® Sesamemilk was awarded Best Milk Alternative and Best Plant-Based Sustainability in FoodBev's 2021 World Plant-Based Food Awards; signature Chocolate Hazelnut Sesamemilk flavor received the 2020 Sofi Award for Best New Product, Plant-Based Milk from the Specialty Food Association.

About The Planting Hope Company Inc.
Planting Hope develops, launches, and scales uniquely innovative plant-based and planet-friendly food and beverage brands. Planting Hope's award-winning and cutting-edge products fill key unmet needs in the skyrocketing plant-based food and beverage space. The Planting Hope brand family includes Hope and Sesame^® Sesamemilk, Barista Blend Sesamemilk, and Sesamilk™ creamers, RightRice^® Veggie Rice, Mozaics™ Real Veggie Chips, and Veggicopia^® Veggie Snacks. Planting Hope products are currently found in more than 15,000 retail doors and 70,000 total distribution points across North America. Founded by experienced food industry entrepreneurs, Planting Hope is a women-managed and woman-led company focused on nutrition, sustainability, and representation.

For more information about Planting Hope please visit plantinghopecompany.com, sign up for Planting Hope news emails HERE and follow on LinkedIn.

An informational webinar on The Planting Hope Company from CEO and Co-founder Julia Stamberger is available HERE.

To follow the brands on Instagram and Facebook, please visit: @hopeandsesameco, @rightrice, @mozaicschips, @veggicopia.

To find Planting Hope products at a store near you in the United States or Canada, please visit the store locator at each brand website: Hope and Sesame store locator, RightRice store locator, Mozaics store locator. Planting Hope products are also available at plantinghopebrands.com and ecommerce retailers including Amazon.com and Amazon.ca.

Contacts

Company Contact:
Julia Stamberger
CEO and Co-founder
(773) 492-2243
julia@plantinghopecompany.com

Investor Relations Contact:
Glen Akselrod, Bristol Capital
(905) 326-1888 ext. 1
glen@bristolir.com

Media Contact:
Alex Jessup, Jessup PR
(323) 529-3541
alex.jessup@jessuppr.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" (collectively referred to hereafter as "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements that address activities, events, or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will, or may, occur in the future, including statements about the Company's ability to execute on its goals, the timing pertaining to these goals the potential demand for the Company's products, the timing and success of anticipated product launches and distribution of the Company's products, and the Company's business prospects, future trends, plans and strategies. In some cases, forward looking statements are preceded by, followed by, or include words such as "may", "will," "would", "could", "should", "believes", "estimates", "projects", "potential", "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "continues", or the negative of those words or other similar or comparable words. In preparing the forward looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including, but not limited to, the assumption that demand for the Company's product will be sustained or increase in accordance with management's projections, that the Company's internal research and analysis is indicative of broader market trends and the Company's anticipated future demand for its products, that changes in consumer preferences in the plant-based food industry will continue in accordance with the Company's expectations, that the Company's current business objectives can be achieved and that its other corporate activities will proceed as expected, and that general business and economic conditions will not change in a materially adverse manner. Although the management of the Company believes that the assumptions made and the expectations represented by such statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any forward-looking statement herein will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, or intended. Risks and uncertainties applicable to the Company, as well as trends identified by the Company affecting its industry can be found in the Company's annual information form dated January 6, 2022 and the Company's continuous disclosure record available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Such cautionary statements qualify all forward-looking statements made in this news release. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

SOURCE: The Planting Hope Company Inc.