Incitec Pivot takes majority stake in Australian Bio Fert to make fertiliser from poultry waste

The chemical giant has spent $38 million for a majority share in a company making fertiliser from dead chooks and poultry residue.

Incitec Pivot Limited has paid $38 million to take a majority stake in fledgling company set up to make fertilisers from dead chooks and poultry residue.

Through its subsidiary Incitec Pivot Fertilisers, IPL will become the majority shareholder of Australian Bio Fert Pty Ltd, a company which has spent about six years developing fertiliser products from poultry waste.

ABF had a pilot plant at Maddingly near Bacchus Marsh which was used for product development and demonstration of its processing and environmental capabilities to the Environment Protection Authority.

ABF chief executive officer Mark Frecheville said the company had a planning permit from the local council and a works approval from the EPA for the new plant, which would be built at Lethbridge.

A number of poultry farms surround Lethbridge.

IPF said construction would begin in the second quarter of 2022 and be completed by the middle of the following year.

IPL managing director Jeanne Johns said today’s announcement was an investment in sustainable farming of the future and part of a transformation of the fertiliser business into a soil health company.

“This investment in regional Victoria is a great example of the environmentally friendly circular economy in action and part of a commitment to help our farming customers reduce environmental impacts while using our safe and effective products,” Ms Johns said.

IPF has been working with ABF for the past three years to develop fertiliser products as a means to divert poultry waste away from landfill.

ABF will use a process called torrefaction, where poultry litter and manure was heated to high temperatures in a confined chamber with little or no oxygen to produce a dry, friable product free of harmful pathogens.

Additives such as rock phosphate or other nutrients can be blended in to make a useful fertiliser product for farmers.

Mr Frecheville said dead poultry birds did not form a large part of the waste used in the torrefaction process but chicken litter did.

Incitec Pivot Fertilisers would have three representatives on the five-member board of ABF.

The other two directors were ABF chairman Andrew Buchanan and Brian Ahmed, who was Victorian Farmers Federation egg group president.

Mr Buchanan said the partnership with IPF marked an exciting milestone for the company.

“This innovative Australian technology creates a new product category for farmers, which we can now commercialise and take to market through IPF’s established and respected professional services and distribution network across the east coast of Australia,” he said.