An Interview with Jose Nolasco and Dr. Cathal Daynes
What is your view on the trends around sustainable agriculture?
We are living in exciting times for agriculture with a clear trend towards enhanced sustainability. Scientific and producer knowledge, along with technology, are increasing our ability to produce more with even less. However, the challenges of today’s agriculture are huge. It is not only producing the food and clothes for humanity, we have to do it in a more sustainable way, while considering consumer trends and demands, such as healthy more nutritious food; and
distributor and grower demands for sustainable, yet profitable solutions. We believe this will be achievable via a Well Balanced Agriculture that combines existing technologies, such as crop protection and basic crop nutrition, and incorporates new and emerging input technologies, such as biocontrol, biostimulants and specialty nutrition, and of course all these inputs enhanced through combination with the appropriate adjuvants to maximise efficiency. At Tradecorp, we are proud to help spearhead this new agricultural revolution.
Could you explain a bit more about Tradecorp?
The Tradecorp story began more than 35 years ago, starting out as a local company in Spain, that has now grown into a global company with sales in more than 60 countries. Tradecorp is part of Rovensa Group, a global leader in sustainable solutions for agriculture, which comprises bionutrition, biocontrol and crop protection solutions. The Group's mission is to feed the planet while preserving and protecting its natural resources. As a Rovensa Company, Tradecorp is committed to develop solutions that lead the transition towards a sustainable agriculture, by developing a high quality portfolio of biostimulants, micronutrients, specialty nutrients and adjuvants. Many of these solutions are inclusively suitable for organic agriculture. Tradecorp´s mission is to help feed the planet through healthy and safe solutions promoting a balanced and sustainable agriculture. We achieve this as a reference company in the global bionutrition sector, via our high quality portfolio, which is managed under the umbrella of biostimulants, micronutrients, specialty fertilisers and adjuvants, remembering that many of our products are suitable for organic agriculture.
And now moving to the details - in what way would you say your products are sustainable?
First of all, sustainability is at the heart of Tradecorp, from renewable electricity used in our entire facilities in Spain, including factories, to our corporate social responsibility and sustainability initiatives - as members of Global G.A.P. and signatories of the United Nations Global Compact. This sustainability ethos to help growers “produce more with less” flows right though the Company, from top to bottom, and of course into our product offerings. Secondly, sustainability informs all decisions regarding products in Tradecorp, beginning right at the product concept inception stage. REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals), GHS (Globally Harmonised System), organic certification (particularly CE, NOP and JAS), sustainable procurement, the circular economy, raw material sustainability, logistics efficiency, and the new EU Farm to Fork initiative, all inform our decision making when developing the portfolio. As of today, we have more than 50 products with organic certifications.
Tradecorp’s facilities in Spain, including factories, use renewable electricity.
What role does Tradecorp believe its products, and similar products, can play in sustainable agriculture?
At its heart sustainable agriculture aims to produce enough food, and agricultural products such as cotton and flax for textiles, to meet the needs of today’s population without compromising the ability of future agriculture to meet the needs of tomorrow’s population. As such there are many ways that Tradecorp supports sustainable agriculture via our knowledge and portfolio. At a top level our goal of “producing more with less” has sustainability at its heart. By combining our know how, and our product solutions, every time we help growers to achieve this goal, we are contributing to sustainability; whether it is via increasing the roots biomass of crops to enable a more efficient root system that allows the potential to reduce fertiliser inputs, the use of biostimulants to reduce the negative yield and quality effects of Abiotic Stress, or the development of ultra-efficient products, that reduce the product logistics footprint, while also enabling growers to use lower doses than similar products. “More with less” is all about sustainability. At a problem specific level, our individual product offerings, and importantly our knowledge training and outreach on how best to use these products, helps growers to tackle different issues allowing for continued optimum yield and quality while also managing the problem in a way that promotes sustainability.
Could you explain more about some of these specific problems and how Tradecorp is combining its products, knowledge and outreach to tackle them?
We have many examples, let’s look at soil degradation, which is a global problem. In line with our outreach, we train distributors and growers, and also the general public, by releasing articles, and also conducting training both online and in person on how to best use our products, for example humic acids, such as Humifirst to help tackle this problem. This way we are not only helping growers manage their crop, we are helping them to sustainably manage their precious soil resource.
Another example is climate breakdown, which is increasing Abiotic Stress in most global crop situations, with more frequent droughts, heat stress, cold stress, or flooding to name but a few challenges. To help growers use products in the most efficient and sustainable way to combat these various stresses, we have developed our Biostimulation 360 initiative. This outreach program is aimed at training growers and distributors on how best to manage these challenges and to promote the ongoing sustainability of their production. We condense complex research and theories into easier to understand concepts like Primactive and Curactive that more easily explain how our products work, and when to best apply them. For example, should they use the product in advance of stress to prime the plants against the oncoming stress, or is it better to use it during, or after stress to help cure the plant from the effect of the abiotic stress. It sounds simple in hindsight, but more than a decade of research was needed to first develop the science behind these concepts and to distil the message into such a clear and simple format, by aggregating products in two distinct application timing groups, and we believe is a truly innovative approach.
And what about your products? Would you say they are sustainable?
As an example of one of our many sustainable products, and the sustainable process around them let us take Vegenergy. This is a vegetal L-α free amino acids based product, the amino acids used as raw materials themselves being derived from plants produced by agriculture, so a sustainable and renewable raw material from our own industry. When processed into amino acids the product has a very good environmental profile. In fact, Vegenergy is also CE and NOP approved for organic agriculture. Then when applied to crops particularly during or after abiotic stress it helps secure yield and quality in a sustainable fashion. As the product is itself from agriculture we are helping the sustainability of local communities, firstly by providing demand and income for the crop that is used as the raw material, and secondly by facilitating the more sustainable production of other crops that will receive applications of Vegenergy. This is a good example of the level of sustainability in many of our products, and also a perfect example of the circular economy in action - a product from sustainable agriculture to be used in sustainable agriculture.
You not only use raw materials from land plants, you also use seaweeds and seaplants. Could you tell us a bit more about that?
Indeed, Phylgreen is another example of our sustainable ethos. It is derived from freshly harvested Ascophyllum nodosum, a coldwater seaweed that lives in the north Atlantic. Phylgreen is hand harvested by our local seaweed harvesters. Some of our harvesters’ families have “farmed” this seaweed for many generations. Hand harvesting is obviously the most environmentally friendly and sustainable way to harvest the Ascophyllum seaweed. In addition, during collection, the cutters ensure they leave the holdfast (which can be thought of as the roots of the seaweed) behind, attached to the rocks, so that the Ascophyllum can regrow and sustain itself.
Although harvested by hand, the harvest process is sophisticatedly managed with all harvests logged by GPS. As part of our sustainable management practices of this natural resource, the harvesters typically do not return to the same area for seven years, to allow plenty of time for the Ascophyllum to regrow and reproduce.
Once the seaweed arrives at our factory, our sustainability ethos continues. The Phylgreen is extracted using our proprietary “Gentle Extraction” process. This process differs from conventional seaweed extraction in that no harsh extraction chemicals are used. We employ a simple cutting and pressure extraction process that requires no chemical extraction aids and thus results in no chemical waste. As part of the circular economy, after extraction of the Phylgreen, the seaweed fibres left over from the process are then fed to local farm animals. Nothing is wasted from our natural raw material. The Phylgreen itself is then bottled with no further processing, and can be thought of as the “extra virgin olive oil” of seaweeds, being of the highest quality, efficacy and sustainability.
Are there other parts of Tradecorp production that you would also highlight from a sustainability point of view?
As mentioned before, since November 2020, all Tradecorp facilities in Spain, including the factories, are running on 100% renewable energy. This is but the latest example of our strong commitment to sustainability, which has always been at the core of Tradecorp. One example: we implemented an Integrated Quality and Environmental Management System that is ISO14001:2004 certified more than 20 years ago.
Our commitment involves carrying out numerous environmental protection initiatives, including activities aimed at sustainable water management, controlling and reducing emissions, along with appropriate waste management, aimed at reusing materials when possible, and recycling when not. The goal is to continue to increase our reuse of materials, while reducing the production of non-recyclable waste with the aim of reducing every year the quantity of waste produced per ton of final product produced.
And looking to the future, what plans does Tradecorp have to build on its record in sustainability? (new products, supply chain)
Of course, our search for an ever more sustainable future continues. For example, some of our successful conventional products and formulation have been re-examined, with formulation changes made to enable them to be used in organic agriculture. This allows Tradecorp to bring our expertise and proven product efficacy to this ever expanding sector of agriculture. This reformulation strategy is in addition to products that from inception are specifically designed for use by the organic market. Regarding new products, of course we cannot give many details at present, however we can say that our next major product launch is a breakthrough in ultra-efficiency at low doses for the biostimulant sector. This product is highly sustainable when viewed from many varied angles. Not only will it increase the sustainability of crop production helping “produce more with less”, it will be used at an ultra-low dose. This means there will be less logistics and reduced transport of material due to the highly concentrated nature and ultra-low doses of the product. In addition, it is derived from a natural and sustainable plant origin. Its proven performance on yield and quality will also dilute all the agronomic inputs used across more produce and output increasing the sustainability of the overall production program, and additionally it can also allow for a reduction reduction in total inputs used in the crop. From start to finish sustainability is built into this product… just as sustainability is built into Tradecorp’s DNA.
What initiatives would Tradecorp like to see to stimulate developments in sustainable agriculture?
Globally, initiatives and innovation around sustainable agriculture are probably currently at an all-time high and have not been this way since the Green Revolution. Sustainable food production is on almost every government’s agenda, and we are proud to be involved in many of these ongoing initiatives, from trials backed by international overseas development aid to increase small holder productivity and sustainability in developing countries, to active participation in EU initiatives such as the European Green Deal particularly “Farm to Fork”. ●
Authors:
Jose Nolasco Director of Strategy & Innovation jose.nolasco@tradecorp.rovensa.com
Dr. Cathal Daynes Global Technical Manager cathal.daynes@tradecorp.rovensa.com
Tradecorp’s cutters ensure they leave the holdfast (which can be thought of as the roots of the seaweed) behind, attached to the rocks, so that the Ascophyllum can regrow and sustain itself
Tradecorp uses a Gentle Extraction process for its seaweed-based products.
