Soilfood

The quality of soil is going down. UN FAO has estimated that we have about 60 yields left and we are losing 12 million hectares a year through soil degradation. At same time our nutrient resources are diminishing rapidly. Dependency on mined and non-renewable nutrients and fertilizers will eventually lead agriculture into a dead-end.

Soilfood creates organic fertilizers and soil amendments from nutrient and carbon rich industrial side-streams which are often weakly utilized or destroyed through incineration. By recycling nutrients Soilfood improves not only farm profitability and yields but also the sequestration of carbon from the atmosphere, the quality of soil and water-bodies and profitability of industrial partners.

Every year, an estimated 12 million hectares of agricultural land are lost to soil degradation. The reasons behind degradation are various, but mainly the change is due to the low organic matter content. Organic matter content has decreased since for few decades now agriculture has been heavily based on chemical fertilizers. When 220 kg of carbon is loosed per hectare a year, soil degradation eventually leads to lower yields and lower profitability of farming.

At same time our nutrient resources are diminishing rapidly. Dependency on mined and non-renewable nutrients and fertilizers will eventually lead agriculture into a dead-end. In addition, the production and use of ammonium nitrate caused emission of 106 megatons of CO2 in 2017.

To be able to feed more than 9 billion people by 2050 and to stop climate change, we need to enhance the quality of soils and reduce using non-renewable nutrients.

Soilfood is providing fertilizers and services for farmer but also solutions for industry stakeholders.

Farmers are becoming more aware of soil health, but their main focus remains in short term fertilizing to maximize annual yields. The weather conditions have been changing because of the climate change and this one of the reasons why farmers are more and more willing to improve the resistance of the field and soil. Improvement requires the increase of organic matter content.

When utilizing industrial side streams Soilfood can offer affordable organic fertilizers to farmers owing to better farm profitability and yields. Soilfood product pricing is planned so that the prices of plant nutrients are significantly lower compared to industry standards. Soilfood nitrogen prices range from 0,6-1 €/kg N compared to the 1.8-2 €/kg N industry standard.

To industries, Soilfood offers a sustainable and risk-free side-stream end use service. Soilfood differs from other actors in the bio-waste handling industry, in that we process the side-streams so that they always produce a revenue on the farmer side. Our greatest asset is our agronomical experience and we work closely with the industrial clients to optimize side-streams for agricultural use.

Soilfood produces organic fertilizer and soil amendment solutions from a broad range of industrial side-streams. Since the side streams require very little processing most common and current technologies are drying, separation and sieving.

At the moment Soilfood has overt 25 product to offer for farmers including liquid and solid fertilizers, pellets, limes, ashes and fibrous soil amendments. Along the product Soilfood offers full services from logistics to spreading and consulting. Soilfood fertilizers and soil amendments are affordable and high in quality which not only provide good yields, but regenerate soil creating long term benefits that mitigate yield losses, particularly in unfavorable years.

Soilfood is already helping over 30 industrial clients in achieving their sustainability goals. Soilfood works partners from many sectors such as forestry, food processing and energy sectors. Site specific service, cloud based logistical management and good agronomic know-how has been the recipe for efficient and ecological nutrient recycling.

Our industrial service provides significant cost savings for our industrial clients. Our service reduces operational costs and thereby improves the profitability of the industries. With our agronomic know-how and experience of fertilizers and soil amendments, we are able to utilize bio-based materials that would otherwise be wasted through energy intensive incineration.

As an example, our Fibrous Soil Amendment NPK  is based on fibre sludge, a very weakly utilized forest industry side-stream. Fibre sludge has a negative energy value, meaning getting rid of it by incineration requires a great amount of energy. As a soil amendment, Fibrous Soil Amendment NPK significantly reduces soil erosion, improves water uptake of plants and turns the field into a long-term carbon sink.

2018 Soilfood and its partners reduced 25 441 tn of CO2 emissions from the agricultural and industrial sectors, which is equal to CO2 foot print of 2 470 Finnish inhabitants. In the same year 731 tn of N and 153 tn of P was recycled back into food production, reducing the need for chemical inputs.

At Soilfood, we like to feed the earths microbes. We’re a fertilizer and soil amendment company specialized in recycling valuable nutrients and binding carbon to agricultural soils. We work with side-streams from over 30 industrial clients from forest, energy and food processing sectors to create valuable plant nutrients and soil amendments that provide hospitable environments for soil micro-organisms.

Actually -we are changing the way of producing food. Instead focusing merely on the feeding of the crops Soilfood is guiding farmers to start feeding soil and soil microbes. Approach is something that no other company on the field of agriculture has done. At the same time Soilfood is turning waste into valuable farming inputs and negative climate impacts into positive carbon storages.

Soilfood produces organic fertilizer and soil amendment solutions from a broad range of industrial side-streams. Depending from the industrial process and the quality of side stream we use common technologies such as drying, separation, sieving and stripping. Technology is not key to success in our case, it’s all about know how.

To be able to feed more than 9 billion people by 2050 and to stop climate change, we need to enhance the quality and health of soils and reduce using non-renewable nutrients. As already mentioned UN FAO has estimated that we have about 60 yields left if don’t change the course of agriculture.

Non-renewable inputs have been the most common way of fertilising for several decades. Nowadays researchers assume that the sufficiency of one of the most critical nutrients, phosphorus is only about fifty to hundred years. If we are to farm in the future the recycling of nutrients is essential.

Annually 11 000 tons of phosphorus is added to Finnish fields. At the same time, over 21 million tons of nutrient-rich side-streams form to the “back-yards” of industrial operators containing 26 000 tons of phosphorus among other valuable nutrients. Solely the amounts formed at forest industry contains about 230 tons of phosphorus and lots of organic matter which improves the the growth potential of the soil. When fibrous side streams are utilized in agriculture, a more sustainable and recycling procedure is obtained.

We work with side-streams from over 30 industrial clients from forest, energy and food processing sectors to create valuable plant nutrients and soil amendments.

On our CRM we have about 3000 farmer contacts. In 2018 about 140 000 tons of Soilfood products were spread to about 20 000 hectares of field. Due to planned scaling in 2021 Soilfood products will be spread to 60 000 hectares. 

Soilfood has a three-year growth strategy in which the in turnover will be tripled into 15 millions by year 2021. After three years’ time we will also triple the field area to 60 000 hectares and take Soilfood concept abroad.

There are several industrial side streams which aren’t suitable as a raw-material for fertilizers or soil amendments e.g. because of the heavy metal content or the nutrient balance.

Company selling organic fertilizer can still be called an underdog in agriculture and fertilizing business. Farmers are getting more and more interested in soil health, but still Soilfood is a pioneer in adding awareness about importance of the soil health. 

We work actively with up-stream stakeholders in order to make their side-streams better adapted for fertilizer and soil amendment use. We continuously take on and manage R&D projects with universities, research institutes and other private companies to improve our product and also affect the processes of our industrial partners. In some cases, processing of fertilizers could be accomplished via integration.

Our marketing focuses on the advantages of environmental agricultural practices and we regularly arrange demonstrational events for farmers.

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At the moment there is 27 employees working in Soilfood. This year Soilfood is planning to hire 10 more people. In five years time, Soilfood will be a company of 100 employees. Hiring focus has been on the sales teams. Those are first ones to expand and after that we are focusing on hiring experts of technological development, processing and international relations.

We are also planning to start technological development projects with universities and research institutions.

Most of our team members are farmers. Farmers who have studied soil health in universities and in practice on their own farms. The need for a company like Soilfood actually aroused from personal needs of out team members. We observed the poor condition on our own fields and wanted to great a company answering our needs and the needs of our neighboring farms.

The level of agronomic know-how is high but also, we have team members that have in their previous positions worked in the field of industry.

Soilfood is a fusion of three companies with a history of soil improvement and fertilizing. Instead of being a beginner, people working in Soilfood have already gained a lot of experience about running a company or being an entrepreneur.

Service management and product development projects are quite straight forwards in our hands, since we have good connections to out stake-holders, universities, research centers, farmers and industrial partners. Empathy is one of our key values. When knowing then needs of our industrial partners and farmers we take very little useless steps. Empathy can be seen on results of our customer satisfaction survey. In 2018 we our industrial partners gave us a grade on 4,2 on scale from 1-5 and our NPS was 63. According to survey our industrial partners rely on us and find us as an innovative partner.

Off course we have our customers; and especially industrial customers we call partners cause with them we develop processes so that side streams can be used more and more as a raw material for our fertilizers and soil amendments.

Beside this we are working keen with many partners in our R&D where we co-operate with universities, research institutions and other private companies

Third group for partners are our logistic and spreading contractor partners; We deliver and spread around 200 truckloads of products to customers each week and this operation is done through our contractor partnerships. They all are using our cloud-software to plan and execute their operations.

We have two business sectors:

For industrial customers Soilfood offers a wide range of cost-effective, operational and ecological services to deal with side streams, i.e. waste. So, this is a service what we offer and from what we charge our customers.

From these side streams we produce agronomically high-value fertilizers and soil amendments, which we sell to farmers with full service, including everything from fertilization plan to field application and spreading.

Due to our business model we are able to receive payment from our raw material and off course from our end product.

Our cashflow has been positive since our operation did start on 2016. Since that we have not raised any funds and we have been able to grow with the cashflow generated from our business. For this year we are estimating 8,2 million dollar turnover and 20 % net profit.

Our new strategy is aiming for international business and we can create value around world for industry and for farmers. If we will be selected as a Solver we see personalized support with intentional introductions as a gate opener for internationalization.

We don’t know right organizations yet, and this is one of the reasons we are applying to be a Solver. All connections from agriculture sector to industrial sectors are highly valued.

We don’t know right organizations yet, and this is one of the reasons we are applying to be a Solver. All connections from agriculture sector to industrial sectors are highly valued.

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We will use the fund for R&D projects focusing on developing new technology to integrate our processes to industrial processes of our partners.

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