Sollio Agriculture, Montreal, Que., the agribusiness division of Sollio Cooperative Group, along with partners from its retail networks, and Pursell Agri-Tech LLC, Sylacauga, Ala., announced on Aug. 31 they are forming a joint venture to build and operate a fertilizer coating plant in St. Thomas, Ont., dedicated to the production of advanced controlled-release fertilizers (CRF). The project represents an investment of over C$20 million. At full capacity, the plant is expected to produce up to 100,000 mt/y.
The jv will break ground in the fall of 2021, and the new plant is expected to be operational in August 2022. It will serve farmers in Eastern Canada and the Northeastern U.S. with CRF products that contain nitrogen, phosphate, and potash, as well as customized plant nutrition options. Pursell technology also enables the addition of micronutrients, biologicals, growth enhancers, and soil health promoters.
“This partnership was made possible by the participation of many member cooperatives and retail joint ventures from our distribution networks across Eastern Canada,” said Sollio Cooperative Group President Ghislain Gervais. “This collaborative effort with our retailers makes this innovative technology that has great potential for the farmers we serve widely available.”
“We are delighted to be joining forces with Pursell to make the numerous economic and environmental benefits of its CRF technology available to Canadian farmers,” said Sollio Agriculture CEO Casper Kaastra. “Local manufacturing reduces logistics expense to customers, provides ability to offer previously unavailable CRF products to this market, and supports nutrient stewardship initiatives associated with the use of fertilizer products.”
“We have tested CRFs at our crop production research farm over four years and found that a preplant application of urea coated with Pursell’s new technology significantly increased corn yield and profitability,” said Sollio Agriculture Crop Management Researcher Lucie Kablan, Ph.D., Agronomy. “We are also conducting promising trials on coated phosphorus and muriate of potash, and have partnered with McGill University to evaluate the environmental benefits of CRFs in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. This will provide useful data to make recommendations to Canadian farmers.”
“Partnering with members of Sollio Cooperative Group to build a plant in St. Thomas is ideal,” said Nick Adamchak, Pursell CEO. “It’s located in close proximity to substrate and material suppliers and creates opportunities for retailers in the region to address the diverse nutrition needs of their customers in a predictable, prescriptive and profitable way. This first license of the Pursell technology outside of the U.S. also enables us to move forward in further international licensing opportunities with our partners at Stamicarbon.”
“The establishment of our St. Thomas plant gives growers in eastern Canada and the northeastern U.S. access to controlled-release nitrogen, phosphate and potash fertilizers, as well as customized plant nutrition options,” added Adamchak. Pursell said its technology, coupled with local manufacturing of products, make widespread adoption of CRF into the commodity agriculture market economically and environmentally feasible. It said that historically, CRF products have been difficult to access for commodity agricultural crops such as corn, wheat, canola, or potatoes, and have been used primarily in turf and ornamental and specialty agriculture in the region.
Pursell, which opened its flagship fertilizer coating plant in Sylacauga in early 2018, has also initiated plans to open an additional plant in Savannah, Ga. (GM May 28, p. 1).
Citing the International Fertilizer Association (IFA), Pursell noted that the use of CRFs could reduce by 20-30 percent the recommended rate of a conventional fertilizer while achieving the same yield. In addition, it said CRFs provide a more predictable, precise release curve, so growers can time when plants receive nutrients and that growers can also enjoy cost savings from being able to reduce fertilizer applications.