Yara and Lantmannen are the first companies to sign a commercial agreement to bring fossil free fertilizers to market. Produced with renewable energy, these green fertilizers are crucial for decarbonizing the food chain and offering consumers more sustainable food choices.
Yara, a leading global fertilizer producer, and Lantmännen, northern Europe's
leading agricultural cooperative with operations from field to fork, began
testing the commercial viability of green fertilizers in 2019 with a common goal
to realize the world's first fossil free food chain. The collaboration has
resulted in a commercial contract for green fertilizers, which will be produced
by Yara and marketed by Lantmännen in Sweden starting in 2023.
Instead of using fossil fuels such as natural gas to produce ammonia - the
building block of mineral fertilizers - the green fertilizers will be produced
with ammonia based on renewable energy produced in Europe, such as Norwegian
hydropower. The result will be fertilizers with an 80 to 90 percent lower carbon
footprint. Yara has a portfolio of green ammonia projects, which will be key to
producing green fertilizers, in Norway, the Netherlands and Australia, and is
working actively to expand its clean ammonia business.
Collaboration is key
"Our partnership with Lantmännen to bring green fertilizers to market is crucial
for decarbonizing the food value chain. We have to transform the food system to
deliver on the Paris Agreement, and 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," says Svein Tore Holsether,
President & CEO of Yara.
For Lantmännen, using the green fertilizers will be an important step closer to
reaching climate neutral farming.
"Lantmännen drives the development towards farming of the future. With the green
fertilizers 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," says Per Olof Nyman, Group President & CEO at Lantmännen.
The fertilizers will be incorporated into Lantmännen's cultivation program
Climate & Nature. The program makes it profitable for farmers to adopt more
sustainable farming practices. Green fertilizers from Yara are an important
additional component in the further development of the program. Combining the
fertilizers with fossil free fuels, transport and precision farming, Lantmännen
will be able to establish a fossil free value chain - from field to fork.
Yara and Lantmännen are also collaborating on other projects to reduce the
carbon footprint of farming in the field through crop nutrition solutions,
innovative farming practices as well as digital tools, enabling the transition
to a decarbonized and more sustainable food value chain.
