Florida-based specialty chemicals developer Eco Agro Resources has announced a pair of important partnerships aimed at expanding the company’s reach and make more products available to consumers. In one deal, Eco Agro Resources is partnering with Solvay Novecare to develop market and product portfolio opportunities in North and South America.

The partnership is part of larger discussions aimed at leveraging the companies’ combined enhanced efficiency fertilizer products (EEFs) for agricultural distributors and customers.

Andrew Semple, CEO of Eco Agro Resources, sees the partnership as a natural evolution of the business. “We’ve worked to identify and develop novel technologies to bring to the agricultural marketplace. To accomplish this takes the right people and relationships. Solvay Novecare’s culture, portfolio, and customer and market focus complements our own strategy and offerings.”

The other deal is a commercial agreement expanding its product range to include Ekote, a line of eco-friendly controlled-release fertilizers by Netherlands-based Ekompany.

Semple anticipates great demand for an alternative source of controlled release fertilizers in the North American markets especially when they are manufactured in a more sustainable fashion. Ekompany developed Ekote coated mineral fertilizers with an eco-friendly patented process. The process and the resulting enhanced efficiency fertilizer significantly reduce the carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions as compared to conventional processes and fertilizers. Sustainable organic polymers are used and harmful solvents are eliminated from the coating process. This new generation of controlled release fertilizer allows macro- and micro-nutrients as well as minerals to be delivered over a prescribed time period. By releasing just what the plant needs when it needs it, crop growth is maximized while minimizing environmental loss of nutrients.