The regenerative fertilizer sector remains a key growth area in the larger agriculture and food production sectors. Due in part to supply disruptions brought on by geopolitical unrest and transportation network disruptions caused by logistical issues, some fertilizer input costs increased continuously in 2022. These same factors also increased crop output prices as well as higher pricing for fertilizer products in Canada and globally. Despite this increased price volatility, Replenish Nutrients continued to generate resilient margins in its business on the back of its innovative and regenerative inputs while continuing to develop and scale the business in a sustainable and durable fashion.
To optimize handling, processing, and transportation costs, the Company successfully expanded the number of blending sites from two to seven in 2022. These additional blending sites also put our products closer to end-user application locations, helping farmers access and obtain products more efficiently. Additional blending sites are being contemplated for 2023, extending our reach further in Alberta and Saskatchewan, which contain over 70 per cent of Canada’s arable acres.
In 2022, we invested in our infrastructure for blended and granulated products, increasing our manufacturing capacity. With investments in engineering and design as well as land, buildings, and equipment infrastructure, we constructed extra production capacity at our DeBolt and Beiseker plants in Alberta to enable future production of both blended and granulated products. This work has helped ensure we are well positioned for the spring 2023 fertilizer season and beyond and will also contribute to the development of our proposed Bethune production facility in Saskatchewan through shared learnings and best practices on engineering and design.
Importantly, Replenish Nutrients continued to develop and expand our long-standing business partnerships with key suppliers and distributors, which helped to achieve preferred access, competitive pricing, and wide distribution for our products. These partnerships focus on developing and sustaining strong environmental, social, and governance practices across our entire supply and distribution chains, supporting our proprietary low-waste manufacturing process and fertilizer products that are chemical-free, low-salt, and biologically active.
Replenish Nutrients is looking forward to another exciting year in 2023, where we anticipate the continued, strong demand for our regenerative solutions that help growers’ soils and economics. We continue to invest in the company’s supply and distribution networks as well as our current and future manufacturing facilities in Beiseker, Debolt, and Bethune to give the company more growth-ready resilience.
