DunhamTrimmer 2024 Global Value-Added Fertilizer Report Highlights and Analysis

Index:

1. Overview of the DunhamTrimmer® 2024 Global Value-Added Fertilizer Report

2. Challenges and Opportunities: For Farmers and Agribusinesses

3. What is a Value Added Fertilizer: Foundational Overview

4. Current Global Market Insights

5. North American Dynamics

6. The Future of Value-Added Fertilizers (VAFs)

7. Final Thoughts

8. About the Report and Dunham Trimmer

Overview of the DunhamTrimmer® 2024 Global Value-Added Fertilizer Report

The ag industry is experiencing increased integration of Value-Added Fertilizers (VAFs) into crop production, a category DunhamTrimmer combines together that includes biostimulant technologies with fertilizers.

A notable stat shared by DunhamTrimmer is that 75% of biostimulants are sold in combination with with nutrients or other crop performance enhancing molecules. This number reinforces that it’s difficult to break these components into separate parts, and also acknowledges the synergy between the two— the combination enhances nutrient use efficiency and overall crop productivity.

The global VAF market is already pegged at $19.8 billion, and yet it remains one of the least understood segments in crop inputs. Note, the report excludes liquid fertilizers (e.g., phosphoric acid, calcium nitrate liquid), non-chelated micronutrients, slow- or controlled-release fertilizers, and nitrogen inhibitors.

This week I looked at the DunhamTrimmer® 2024 Global Value-Added Fertilizer Report, which comprehensively outlines key market dynamics, growth drivers, regional insights and influential companies across 13 sections of the report:

About the full DunhamTrimmer® Global Value-Added Fertilizer Market Report

The DunhamTrimmer 2024 Global Value-Added Fertilizer (VAF) Market Report offers a comprehensive, insider-driven analysis on the global VAF landscape.

Spanning nearly 500 pages, the report delivers detailed market data segmented by geography, crop group, application type, and includes a focused view on the Premium Nutritionals category (premium soluble fertilizers). Unlike traditional reports based on ex-manufacturing values, this report is grounded in real-world grower pricing, providing unique accuracy and commercial relevance.

Designed for everyone from executives, to product managers, to agronomists, and formulators, the report delivers actionable insights tailored to each role.

It is one of the most detailed market intelligence reports I have ever been exposed to.

Challenges and Opportunities: For Farmers and Agribusinesses

There remain agronomic challenges for farmers to overcome that biostimulants, specialty fertilizers and the combination of them, value-added fertilizers (VAFs), are uniquely capable of mitigating:

1. abiotic stress is one of the biggest yield robbers from farmers in commodity row-crops:

Not to mention, VAF products can help alleviate the stress from crop protection products when used in a targeted fashion (eg: herbicide phytotoxicity).

2. Nutrient and water use efficiency are far from where they could be, illustrating the opportunity to increase utilization which can drive ROI for farmers:

   

   Not to mention the opportunities in high value crop segments, influencing quality parameters— such as in apples, and cherries for example and increasing skin quality.

   Plus, opportunities for crop protection companies, which have all been looking for ways to enhance margins and gain opportunity beyond traditional crop protection segments that have high treatment intensity rates, while painting a positive environmental story:

For context, when Stoller was acquired by Corteva, they had well over 20% EBITDA margins across their business, before considering what a scaled organization like Corteva could do to enhance them.

In my conversations with organizations that operate in the biostimulant and nutrition space, VAF-type companies have on average over 20% operating margins, illustrating the boost that can be delivered to major agribusinesses.

Whether crop protection or fertilizer manufacture or ag retailer, they all have expansive aspiration for their specialty fertilizer and biological segments:

That means VAFs are uniquely positioned to support farmers and agribusinesses.

Below, I dive into a small portion of the DunhamTrimmer GlobalValue-Added Fertilizer Report exploring the market outlook, technological innovations, regulatory landscapes, and pivotal factors influencing the global adoption of Value-Added Fertilizers.

What is a Value Added Fertilizer

As farmers push for higher productivity Value-Added Fertilizers (VAFs) continue to grow in interest.

At their core, VAFs are not just fertilizers. They’re novel formulations that combine three components laid out by DunhamTrimmer:

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