UPM launches new biostimulant product range as a long-term solution for sustainable agriculture

Date:04-02-2024

UPM Biochemicals has announced the launch of a new range of bio-based plant stimulants, UPM Solargo™. This launch marks UPM’s entry into the large and profitable agrochemicals market with an innovative, sustainable alternative to fossil raw materials-based products.  

UPM Solargo™ biostimulants are a highly innovative solution for sustainable agriculture providing scientifically proven benefits for a broad range of crops cultivated in fields and greenhouses with a significantly optimized environmental footprint compared to incumbent fossils-based products. They  aid plant growth by improving the quality of soil microbiome and by increasing water retention.

Left side: without UPM Solargo™, middle: 50g/m³ of UPM Solargo™ 900, right: 500 g/m³ of UPM Solargo™ 900 mixed in cultivation media showing optimum growth of birch seedlings. The greenness of the leaves indicates better uptake of nutrients by the plant.

Unlike traditional fertilizers, UPM Solargo™ biostimulants do not directly provide nutrients to the plant. Instead, they increase nutrient absorption, utilization efficiency and stress tolerance of the plant. In long term testing, UPM Solargo™ products have shown to increase crop yield and quality. More importantly, UPM Solargo™ has the potential to help significantly reduce demand for classical fertilizers based on nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK), the production and use of which is held responsible for up to 80% of CO₂-emissions in crop production¹.

″The launch of UPM Solargo™ marks the successful end of many years of research and development. By bringing this family of novel, bio-based plant stimulants to market, we establish yet another, entirely new category of high value sustainable chemicals and live up to our commitment to pioneer sustainable chemistry″ says Christian Hübsch, Director Sales & Marketing Biochemicals at UPM.

″The reduction of CO₂ emissions across industries can only work if we scale the replacement of materials and chemicals which are based on fossil raw materials – across sectors. The agricultural sector is particularly important in that respect, as the effect of bio-based, sustainable products such as UPM Solargo™ goes beyond climate change mitigation. It also supports increasingly important sustainability goals for the agricultural sector by improving soil health, soil productivity and biodiversity thereby effectively mitigating the negative effects of traditional fertilizers, mainly nitrification, erosion and disturbance in soil microbiota,″" Hübsch adds.

UPM Solargo™ biostimulants are a natural product containing plant-based polyphenols from renewable sources. They are derived from lignin, a bio-based, non-toxic raw material that can help to significantly reduce our dependency on fossil raw materials in a variety of applications. Test marketing has been finalized with great success in main European markets and the process of rolling out UPM Solargo™ at full industrial scale has started.

UPM is committed to creating a future beyond fossils by bringing more environmentally friendly materials, such as UPM’s sustainable lignin solutions, to the market. UPM Biochemicals is part of a broader growth area, UPM Biorefining, focused on scaling refineries producing a variety of renewable fuels and chemicals made from sustainable biomass.

¹ BW Agrar, 2022