Products
View on a market-led approach
Climate and soil type generate a great demand for organic fertilization in agricultural areas throughout the world. DOFCO opts for natural, organic fertilizer pellets and soil conditioners to meet this demand. Fertilizer pellets have major advantages with regard to transport costs, marketing and hygiene.
DOFCO supplies the products as mineral fertilizer substitute and soil conditioner directly to customers abroad. Yield price is DOFCO’s point of departure for the procurement and production of organic pellets. To support the application of fertilizer pellets in various crops, DOFCO has set up field trials in countries such as Poland and Hungary.
Mandatory manure processing in the Netherlands as from 1 January 2014 means exporting or destroying animal fertilizers on the basis of phosphate content. Consequently, the supply of exportable fertilizers will increase, resulting in the need to seek a market abroad. At the beginning of mandatory manure processing, the emphasis will be placed on expanding existing exports to Germany, France and Belgium (first generation solutions). This will concern poultry manure and separated and exportable thick fraction (pig) manure.
When the supply of dried raw materials increases, so will the already existing factory production of fertilizer pellets and soil conditioners.
In the longer term, animal manure will increasingly be used as raw material for various high-quality applications. The green raw material economy is likely to create a wide range of new products and applications. Examples of new technologies are (bio-)gas production from organic biomass, torrefaction, pyrolysis and examples of end products are biochars, biocoal and various fertilizers such as struvite. At present, these initiatives are still in an exploratory and developmental stage (2013). However, here too, the outlets will ultimately determine the success of these new product-market combinations, whereby product innovation and market-led sales will be key factors.
Products from DOFCO International
High-quality natural, organic fertilizers are slow-release NPK-fertilizers. They consist of two-thirds of organic matter and further contain all essential food minerals and micronutrients. The standard pellet is guaranteed to contain 90% dry matter. The composition of the nutrients and micronutrients depends upon the choice and composition of the natural raw materials. Regular poultry fertilizer pellets contain 4% nitrogen, 3% phosphate, 2.5% potassium, 1% magnesium and 10% calcium. In pig manure pellets the nitrogen content is 2.5%, the phosphate content 4.5%, and the potassium content 6.5%. Essential micronutrients are among other things, sodium, iron, boron, copper, manganese, cobalt, zinc, and molybdenum. The fertilizer pellets are guaranteed weed and pathogen free and are easy to apply before and during the growing season. The fertilizer comes in either sealed big bags or in 25 kg bags that are excellently convenient for use and storage.
Services
The services provided by DOFCO and DOFCO International include the following:
- Project assistance in international projects (such as BioEcoSIM) in the field of organic fertilizer and soil conditioner application (e.g. EU Seventh framework programme).
- Advice and market research with regard to mandatory manure processing.
- Project assistance to biogas installations with digestate processing systems.
- Policy analyses, second opinions, SWOT analyses.
- Sparring partner for initiators.
- Contributing to conferences, workshops, courses, study groups, etc., in the Netherlands and abroad.