GLG Life Tech Corporation Announces Delay in Filing Year-End Financial Statements and Provides Business Update

GLG Life Tech Corporation GLGL announced today that it will delay the filing of its annual financial statements, its management discussion and analysis relating to its annual financial statements, its Annual Information Form (and related Form 40-F in the United States) and the CEO and CFO certifications (collectively, the "Required Documents") for the period ended December 31, 2011, beyond the prescribed deadline of March 30, 2012. The Company is working to obtain further audit evidence, primarily from third parties, required by its auditors in order to complete the audit. The Company's management, together with its audit committee will continue to cooperate with its auditors to provide the information as soon as possible and the Company expects that the Required Documents will be filed on or before April 30, 2012. In the interim, the Company has applied to the applicable Canadian securities regulatory authorities for a management cease trade order ("MCTO"). There is no certainty that the MCTO will be granted. Until the Required Documents are filed, the Company intends to satisfy the provisions of the alternative information guidelines in accordance with National Policy 12-203 – Cease Trade Orders for Continuous Disclosure Defaults by issuing bi-weekly status reports in the form of news releases so long as it remains in default of the filing requirements noted above. The applicable Canadian securities regulatory authorities may issue a general cease trade order against the Company for failure to file the Required Documents within the prescribed time period or sooner if GLG fails to file its default status reports during the prescribed time limits. There are no insolvency proceedings that GLG is subject to and there is no other material information concerning the affairs of the Company that has not been generally disclosed. The Company will proceed with its conference call scheduled for Friday, March 30, 2012 at 8:00am Pacific Time (11:00am Eastern Time). Business Update 1. Stevia Business General Competitive Conditions in the Global Stevia Industry Currently, Management sees three challenges in the global stevia industry: 1. Main challenge and biggest difficulty is in formulating with stevia to develop a good tasting product by food and beverage companies 2. Increasing competition within the stevia industry as different levels of players entered: Vertically integrated, Partially integrated (primary or secondary processing only), and Distributors/Brokers 3. There was a stevia oversupply in 2011, which resulted in pricing that is very competitive on large volume opportunities. Global Stevia Market opportunities Going forward, however, we see the following opportunities: 1. New markets opening up will increase demand: a. EU approval granted at the end of 2011 b. India's Food Safety and Standards Authority has recommended the use of stevia, and government approval is expected in 2012 2. Formulation expertise is a value-added service that is helping food and beverage companies accelerate new product development 3. Long term sustainable competitiveness originates from a strong agricultural program. Only truly vertically integrated players with control over their own leaf have the lower cost structure that is necessary to sustain low pricing that is currently offered by some of the partially integrated competitors There are signs that stevia is making headway in penetrating the consumer market. The US market for consumer products sweetened with stevia continues to expand. According to an August 2011 Mintel study, sales of stevia products in the US are expected to reach nearly $1.2 billion in 2013, up from $439 million in 2010. According to Datamonitor, for the 12 months to September 2011, more than 300 stevia-sweetened products launched in the US and 630 launched globally.