JBS has commenced production of a range of fertilisers at a €24 million production facility – Campo Forte Fertilizantes – in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The global protein-based, food-production company announced today (Monday, March 21) that it will have capacity to manufacture 150,000t, annually, of organic, organo-mineral, and other special products from the use of organic residues and mineral raw materials.

This move is the result of a study that started in 2016 to identify how to best use residues from its operations.

It will see the company operating, for the first time, in the market of agricultural consumables, while becoming the first Brazilian food producer to use residues generated in the company’s operations in the manufacture of fertilisers.

These fertilisers, the company said, will promote increased productivity, boost nutrients, and reduce losses, with lower impact to the environment.

Currently, 87% of fertilisers used in Brazil are imported.

Initially, the company said, it will target fertiliser for use in soya beans; corn; coffee; sugarcane; horticultural crops; as well as pastures and forests.

Organic fertilisers, it said, may be applied to organic agriculture.

Commenting, executive director at JBS, Susana Carvalho, said:

“We believe this is a good use of the residues from our operations, generating a product with added value, from a highly technological and sustainable industrial process.”