Earlier this month, Alltech Crop Science broke ground on a new 15,000 square foot facility that will expand its manufacturing at the company’s corporate headquarters in Nicholasville, Kentucky. The $4.6 million project was supported by a $2.34 million grant from the USDA Fertilizer Production Expansion Program (FPEP).
FPEP grants are awarded to expand the domestic manufacturing and processing of fertilizer and nutrient alternatives and their availability. You can view the awarded FPEP grants here.
This is Alltech’s first U.S. manufacturing plant focused solely on producing crop science products, and it’s expected to produce around 66,000 gallons of product a month.
Dr. Steve Borst, Alltech crop science vice president, says the project will be complete in the next five years, per the grant term.
“This expansion project will enable us to expand the current volumes that we are doing here, as well as support new innovations, new technologies we will be launching in the near future,” Borst says.
Alltech started its crop science business over 30 years ago. In addition to U.S. production, the company also makes its products in Brazil and Spain.
“This project provides us the opportunity to really focus on domestically providing domestic jobs here and local manufacturing,” he says. “A lot of our inputs are customizable in how we provide them to our customers, so if we have a change in the market, having a domestic footprint will allow us to pivot and provide a direct solution to combat that challenge.”
Borst says Alltech sees biologicals, including biofertilizers, as a growth market.
“It has been exciting to see a focus on how promoting quality is promoting the opportunity to decrease dependency on synthetic inputs,” Borst says. “In the evolution of the market over the last 10 years, we’ve found how biological fit into overall programs.”
Borst explains Alltech’s product portfolio starts with a fermentation process–bacteria, yeast, or fungi.
“That’s our core competency. All of our technologies stem from a microbial fermentation process,” he says.
The Nicholasville expansion will result in production of all of Alltech’s crop science products.
Alltech’s biofertilizer is based on an amino acid technology which provides increased nutrient uptake.
Borst says the company recently launched a bionematicide in Brazil, and that along with other biopesticides will be developed for regulatory approval for use in the U.S.
Alltech Crop Science provides white labeled products for retail and distribution, and Borst says another benefit to the business in this expansion will be able to produce more technologies for those white labeled lines as well.
