The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has reignited a problem that is not new, but is becoming increasingly urgent for European agriculture: dependence on imported raw materials.
According to World Bank estimates, global food prices are expected to rise by an average of 31% in 2026, with more than half of that increase driven by the higher cost of urea alone. Meanwhile, the FAO has warned of the risk of reduced availability of ammonia, phosphates and sulphur for staple crops over the next six to nine months.
This pressure comes on top of the entry into force, from 1 January 2026, of the European Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which will also apply to imported fertilisers.
Turning waste into fertilisers
This is the perspective behind the European ReLEAF project, which brings together 17 organisations, including companies and research bodies from nine countries, with the aim of transforming organic waste and residues from the agri-food and fisheries supply chains into bio-based fertilisers capable of nourishing the soil without relying on extra-European imports.
For Italy, the project involves the National Research Council (CNR), Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna and TIMAC AGRO Italia.
TIMAC AGRO Italia is developing NK, NP and NPK bio-based fertiliser formulations, incorporating ingredients obtained by other partners in the consortium. This work is being carried out using the company’s own laboratory-scale granulation plant located in Ripalta Arpina, in the province of Cremona.
The first tests have delivered results that the research team describes as consistent with the project’s expectations, both from a physical and chemical point of view.
Research and industry working together
The scientific work is taking place alongside a broader dialogue between industry and the academic world.
In recent weeks, as TIMAC AGRO marked 35 years of activity in Italy, the company organised an international meeting at the World Innovation Centre (CMI) in Saint-Malo, Brittany. The centre is the main private European research hub in the field of plant nutrition and is owned by Groupe Roullier, of which TIMAC AGRO is part.
RELATED NEWS: EC proposes increasing agricultural crisis reserve amid rising fertiliser prices
The event involved the company’s network of technical sales agronomists, together with representatives from Bocconi University, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, the University of Udine and the University of Basilicata.
This exchange reflects a broader trend: technology transfer between research and business is becoming increasingly decisive at a time when geopolitical instability is making the availability of traditional raw materials less predictable.
More stable tools for growers
“At a time when the global supply chain is showing all its fragility, working with universities and research centres to turn waste into resources is not only an industrial choice, but a concrete way to give farmers more stable tools, less exposed to fluctuations in international markets,” said Pierluigi Sassi, CEO of TIMAC AGRO Italia.
“The security of a sector such as agriculture is also built in this way: by gradually reducing the distance between the point where waste is generated and the point where fertiliser is produced.”
Towards possible industrialisation
The ReLEAF project will continue over the coming months with further tests on the formulations identified, with a view to the possible industrialisation of processes on a larger scale.
These circular economy-based raw materials will subsequently be enhanced through Roullier’s patented technologies, designed to maximise nutrition and improve the quality of agricultural production.
