Fulton, Ill.-Schafer Fisheries, which claims to be the Midwest’s largest distributor of fresh fish and frozen seafood, has turned a sideline that began producing liquid fertilizer from leftovers in 2002 into a business that reached a million gallons last year. “We’re well on our way to selling the same amount this year,” reported Lou Jullien, a Schafer consultant. What’s more, claimed Jullien, Shafer’s Liquid Fish is priced about the same as chemical fertilizers, and less than competing organic products. Schafer grinds the entrails and internal organs through a cold process that retains more of the nutrients than a similar process used to create fish emulsion and fertilizer. The cold process is supposed to maintain hormones, vitamins, enzymes, amino acids, and minerals in the product. “The problem with the emulsion is that the heat used to create it destroys the microbes, one of the important nutrients in the fertilizer,” said Jullien. He described the three main Liquid Fish ingredients as citric, phosphoric, and sulfuric acids. According to Jullien, another important part of producing the fertilizer is that it helps the company cut down on waste while producing an environmentally safe product. And the response from users, he added, has been positive. One farmer in Florida increased his corn yield by 10 percent after using the fertilizer just once. He mentioned that the company is expanding into world markets, including Singapore, India, Israel, and Indonesia.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain