Yara and Lantmännen have signed a commercial agreement to bring fossil-free fertilisers to the market.
They began testing the commercial viability of green fertilisers three years ago with a common goal to realise the world’s first fossil-free food chain.
The collaboration has resulted in a commercial contract for green fertilisers.
Yara will produce the fertilisers, and Lantmännen will market them in Sweden starting in 2023.
Fossil-free fertilisers
Produced with renewable energy, the companies stated that these green fertilisers are “crucial” for decarbonizing the food chain and offering consumers more sustainable food choices.
Instead of using fossil fuels such as natural gas to produce ammonia – the building block of mineral fertilisers – Yara will produce the green fertilisers with ammonia-based on renewable energy produced in Europe, such as Norwegian hydropower.
According to Yara, the result will be fertilisers with an 80-90% lower carbon footprint.
Today, Yara claims its nitrate-based mineral fertilizers produced in the European Union and Norway already have a carbon footprint that is about 50-60% lower than most non-EU fertilizers.
According to the company, this is because of the use of a best available technology (BAT) catalytic process that reduces greenhouse gas emissions during production, which Yara first developed.
Yara has a portfolio of green ammonia projects. The company outlined that this will be “key” to producing green fertilisers in Norway, the Netherlands and Australia.
The company outlined that it is working “actively” to expand its clean ammonia business.
Transform food system
In a statement, Svein Tore Holsether, president & CEO of Yara, said:
“Our partnership with Lantmännen to bring green fertilisers to market is crucial for decarbonizing the food value chain.”
“We have to transform the food system to deliver on the Paris Agreement. This will require collaboration across the entire food chain instead of working in silos.”
“The Yara-Lantmännen partnership is a concrete example of how this can be done.”
Climate-neutral farming
For Lantmännen, using green fertilisers will be an “important” step closer to reaching climate-neutral farming.
Per Olof Nyman, group president & CEO at Lantmännen, said:
“Lantmännen drives the development towards farming of the future.”
“With the green fertilisers from Yara in place, we enable Swedish farmers to continue to be at the forefront, offering our customers sustainability performance according to global climate targets as well as bringing sustainable food to consumers.”
“With this partnership, we can continue to meet an increased market demand for sustainable products,” he concluded.
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