Asfertglobal expands in international markets with sustainable biofertilizers

Asfertglobal is a leading Portuguese company in the development of biofertilisers based on the use of microorganisms and new organic molecules from natural sources. Asfertglobal's organic solutions have led the international expansion to the key markets. Earlier this year, the company announced the opening of new subsidiary abroad in Mexico, and the first export to the Chinese market. Today, Asfertglobal’s products are present in twenty-five countries, such as Spain, South Africa, France, USA, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Russia.

AgroPages interviewed the CEO of Asfertglobal, Joel Jerónimo, who is leading the company to internationalization, with their biologicals recognized as efficient and sustainable for agricultural production.

Fast growing for over twenty years, Asfertglobal is now selling various biofertilizer products in twenty-five countries in Europe, Africa, Americas and Asia. Could you please tell us some milestones during the company’s development?

We remain committed to meeting the company's growth objectives and we are investing in our internationalization and in our products. 

In this sense, since last year we have reinforced internationalization by entering several markets, where I can highlight the Mexican market and China, two very demanding markets, which has been possible thanks to the strong investment in R+D made by a multidisciplinary team which includes biologists and agronomists who help us to practice a more sustainable agriculture, more ecological and consequent, with zero impact on the environment. This is the secret to the growing confidence for these managements.

This new business framework supports our internationalization process, while we are reinforcing and strengthening our presence in the American market, where we already have commercial activity in the USA, Chile and Peru.

Microbial fertilizers can significantly improve the soil health. What are the advantages of Asfertglobal’s biofertilizer Kiplant AllGrip?

AllGrip is a biofertilizer made up of a bacterial consortium that promotes plant growth, with particularly relevant action in the production of phytohormones, solubilization of phosphate from inorganic sources. 

Kiplant AllGrip microorganisms produce several enzymes, such as acid and alkaline phosphatases, phytases (which hydrolyze the phytate, one of the organic types of Phosphorus more common in vegetables tissues) and esterase related with the degradation of phospholipids.

Are there any things you would like to highlight about other products developed by Asfertglobal?

I would like to highlight Kiplant iNmass, also a biofertilizer composed of a bacterial consortium but which contains nitrogen-fixing microorganisms and phytohormone producers, whose synergy results in an effective complement of nutrition for the plant. 

These solutions make it possible to reduce the amount of conventional fertilizers added to the soil by around 50%, making agriculture more sustainable and more environmentally friendly. 

Today we are attentive to sustainable agriculture and try to minimize the impact of farming on the ecosystem. Would you like to talk about Asfertglobal's strategy for food production with zero waste?

The European Commission aims to reduce by 50% the use of pesticides and other chemically synthesized active ingredients while ensuring no deterioration of soil fertility.

It also intends to strengthen the development of organic farming in the EU area, with the goal of achieving 25% of the total agricultural land dedicated to organic farming by 2030.

In this sense, it is necessary to give more and more importance to sustainable solutions that involve the use of microorganisms, substances of origin in natural extracts and without residues.

Let us not doubt that the sustainability of today's agriculture lies in the technological innovation that has allowed us to reach a level of food safety never achieved before.

Asfertglobal has started the business in the South American. What challenges did you encounter when exploring the emerging market? How did you tackle them?

Without a doubt, the big challenge of entering other markets are the bureaucratic issues where the different markets have different regulations and therefore it is necessary to be aware of all these issues.

This year, with the worldwide pandemic outlook, the biggest difficulties we faced was really the lack of face-to-face contact with our customers, producers and distributors. We tried to keep production, and contact with customers with the same dedication, but with a different format, through all the means available such as mobile phone, emails, video conferences, among others.

This interview was originally published in the magazine 2021 Biologicals Special. Asfertglobal is the Gold Sponsor of the issue. 

Click the picture below to download the magazine and find more reports on biologicals.