Indian IFFCO lands in Brazil with 1st nanofertilizer factory

Date:03-11-2025

India's largest agricultural cooperative, IFFCO Group (Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative), has begun construction of Brazil's first nanofertilizer factory. Nanoventions Brasil, a company within the Indian group, will make an initial investment of US$12 million in a facility that will also include an advanced research and development (R&D) center.

The groundbreaking ceremony took place in the city of Campina Grande do Sul, in Paraná. This Brazilian state is one of the country's main agricultural producers and was chosen, along with local entrepreneurs who became partners in Nanoventions Brasil, as the first destination outside India to begin IFFCO's international expansion plan.

According to the manufacturers, the technology developed by the Indians represents an advancement over traditional fertilizers by being more efficient, which should reduce costs for farmers, waste of inputs, and environmental impacts. The group's idea is also to increase production in Brazil, reducing imports.

The factory infrastructure should be completed by October 2025, with equipment being sent ready for assembly directly from IFFCO's headquarters in India. The factory's production capacity is estimated at 5 million liters of nanofertilizers per year, but Nanoventions Brasil plans to double this potential within five years of operation.

According to Fausto José Caron, founding partner of Nanoventions Brasil, the company analyzed six states in the South, Southeast, and Central-West regions to install the first factory but ultimately chose Paraná due to favorable conditions for business model growth.

"We negotiated with several states, but Paraná stood out for having a well-structured tax benefit program, robust infrastructure, with emphasis on the road network and the Port of Paranaguá, and a government team that has served us very well from the beginning," reported Caron.

In turn, the governor of Paraná, Carlos Massa Ratinho Junior, emphasized that "IFFCO is one of the world's largest agricultural cooperatives, while Paraná is the state with the most cooperatives in Latin America, with 7 of the 10 largest present here, which demonstrates that cooperativism is part of our essence."

"Being able to bring Brazil's first nanofertilizer factory to Paraná is very symbolic because it aligns with Paraná's vocation as Brazil's largest food producer and the country's most sustainable state. Additionally, this production meets a need of our farmers, who currently import 85% of the fertilizers used in the field," added Ratinho Junior.

IFFCO is also studying the possibility of partnerships with local universities and Tecpar (Paraná Technology Institute). According to Ritesh Sharma, founding partner of Nanoventions Solution, the goal is to reinforce the potential for innovation and applied research, with the transfer of knowledge from Indians to Brazilians, ensuring that the State of Paraná becomes a reference hub in nanotechnology applied to agribusiness.

"This is a technology that changed the agricultural model in India. After two years of studies and scientific tests adapted to the Brazilian reality, the support of the Paraná Government made us so excited that we decided not only to build a factory to supply the inputs but also to create a research center to develop this knowledge in the State," detailed Sharma.

Nanofertilizers use particles on a nanometric scale that ensure more efficiency in the absorption and efficient use of nutrients, increased agricultural productivity due to the need for applying fewer doses of the product, which also mitigates risks of soil and water resources contamination, as well as fewer greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

The development of nanofertilizers required US$200 million in investments and 8 years of studies and research. IFFCO, along with the Indian government, invested up to US$300 million to develop and expand nanofertilizer production. In India, where they are already widely used, they have revolutionized agricultural production due to their high efficiency in plant nutrition.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)