Agrion receives BRL250 million, plans to build 10 new factories

Date:11-04-2024

Agrion Fertilizantes Especiais and American investment manager Pegasus Capital Partners have sealed a BRL250 million investment agreement. 

The funds, provided by the Global Fund for Coral Reefs, will be used to construct ten new specialty fertilizer factories and develop other products.

The American fund's primary investor is the UN's Green Climate Fund (United Nations). Ernani Judice, CEO and founder of Agrion will remain the majority shareholder and controller and will be responsible for company management.

Ernani Judice at center

"This significant investment from a North American fund will bring us a UN global ESG certification while enabling our expansion, as we have more than ten memoranda signed for new factories. It will also allow the development of new product lines, always with integrated production, circular economy, and focused on increasing productivity while reducing environmental impacts in the plant nutrition segment," he stated.

Currently, Agrion produces around 60,000 tons of fertilizers at its factory located in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, alongside Companhia Bioenergética da Aroeira. The fertilizer is made from vinasse and filter cake, sugarcane residues generated by the mill, and sold to both the mill itself and the market. According to Judice, the goal is to replicate this model with 20 new plants over the next 10 years.

"We have enormous growth potential for the coming years," he assessed, noting that Brazil currently has more than 400 sugarcane mills. The next two units are expected to be installed in São Paulo state. The company's focus is to operate mainly in the Brazilian states of Goiás, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, São Paulo, and also in the Northeast region.

The Global Fund for Coral Reefs, managed by Pegasus Capital Advisors, is the only fund supporting investments that benefit coastal marine habitats and coral reef health in the Global South. According to Dale Galvin, the Fund's Executive Director, circular economy and pollution management are among the impact sectors financed by the initiative.

"Excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture can cause these inputs to be carried into waterways, which in turn carry them to the sea, threatening coastal habitats and coral reefs. By providing a destination for highly polluting sugarcane residues, Agrion contributes to marine ecosystem resilience. This business model also supports the circular economy, as Agrion's product will be used in the plants where the waste is generated," Galvin explained.

Agrion produces slow-release organomineral fertilizer made from organic matter derived from sugarcane juice filtration (filter cake). It also produces four other types of fertilizers: meal fertilizer, liquid organomineral (made from vinasse, another sugarcane by-product), biological inputs, and developing foliar fertilizers.

Established in 2019, Agrion is a Brazilian company formed by a technical and executive team pioneering in the country's organomineral segment. It is dedicated to developing innovative solutions and products for agriculture to increase productivity in the sector. Agrion always preserves natural resources, reuses waste, avoids unnecessary losses and produces locally.

Agrion develops, implements, operates, and makes all industrial plant investments for controlled-release solid organomineral fertilizers, liquids, and biological inputs built on-site at sugar-energy mills in a circular economy format. Thus, it optimizes logistics costs and generates operational and commercial synergies. Part of the production is consumed by the mill and its sugarcane suppliers, with the surplus sold in the local market.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)