This July, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced six novel fertilizer industry standards, listing them to gather public opinion and comments. The six standards, which cover humic acid urea, humic acid compound fertilizer, alginic acid urea and alginic acid fertilizer, will now be released as an industry standard for “recommended implementation.” Hence, the standardization and normalization of Chinese biostimulant products will progress at an accelerated speed. 

Under these circumstances, Leili Group, the global algae biostimulant functional fertilizer industry leader, said the company would open its alginic acid fertilizer and compound fertilizer technologies to the industries for cooperation by providing a raw material package and processing techniques. In an interview with AgroPages, Tang Jie, the CEO of Leili Group, elaborated on the company's reasons for deciding to open up the use of its alginic acid fertilizer technology, developed over two decades, and provided insight into Leili Group's goals for future cooperation with partners in a new era. 

What is the significance of this release of a new fertilizer standard to Leili?

From Leili’s perspective, the release of a new standard is an affirmative acknowledgement from the government and industry of Leili’s 23-year commitment to algae fertilizer research. Since the government’s certification of the liquid seaweed extract initiated by Leili in 1998 and thereafter the launch of various algae fertilizers one after the other, Leili has created various product standards including the alginic acid testing method. For a long time, Leili has been appealing to the government and industry to get this kind of product certified.

The release of a new standard marks recognition of emerging industries. The novel fertilizer is expected to grow rapidly and will result in a significant change – where agricultural inputs change from the “three elements' times” into functional fertilizer times. This will provide a strong technical backup for the government initiative to reduce the use of fertilizer and pesticide. The release of a new standard indicates the start of standardized industry development of novel fertilizers to ensure the overall industrialization of functional fertilizers.

Why is Leili beginning this system of cooperation for alginic acid fertilizer and compound fertilizer now for the first time in 20 years? How is it connected with the release of the new standard?

Since the launch of Leili’s alginic acid fertilizer in 2001, the product has achieved recognition in the domestic and international markets because of its excellent long-lasting biological effect, physiological regulation and nutrient balance, having been exported to countries or regions such as South Korea , Southeast Asia, South America, the Middle East, and Taiwan. As the alginic acid compound fertilizer was unique, Leili established the brand “DOUBLE WIN ,” which is now promoted across more than 40 countries.

Leili has successfully promoted its alginic acid compound fertilizer in the domestic market since 2003, covering provinces such as Shandong, Hubei, Hunan, and Hebei. Over time, promotions gradually expanded to the Henan, Yunnan, Guangdong, and Hainan provinces. Further, Leili has developed an innovative algae slow-control fertilizer (urea formaldehyde resin) for green fertilizer and fairway fertilizer, which have been used on golf turf in northern China. After three product upgrades, Leili has obtained five patents for alginic acid compound fertilizer and has formulated eight corporate standards. After a 15-year effort, Leili is now pleased to embrace the inclusive development of alginic acid compound fertilizer.

Inclusive development is today’s mainstream business and a sign of civilization in modern business. Although a certain degree of chaos may exist in the alginic acid compound fertilizer market, Leili has always insisted that algae fertilizer is not just a product added to seaweed. Its core technology applied to the product has had proven success after lengthy market testing. China’s 13th five-year plan requires an urgent agricultural transformation and upgrade, for which one or two enterprises cannot assume responsibility. Leili is prepared to cooperate with more partners to serve the agricultural sector in an open manner. 

The release of the new fertilizer standard will set manufacturers at the forefront of the industry, encouraging them to upgrade their technical capacity and service quality to catch up with the requirement. Leili is willing to help its partners save time and money on product development by sharing techniques that enable them to perform technical upgrades. This will ensure the overall development of the algae fertilizer industry. As a matter of fact, on the occasion of Leili’s 20th anniversary celebration, and as a public service company, Leili expressed the wish to make social contributions to find solutions to social issues.

How will Leili choose its partners and how will the cooperation agreement look? What momentum will the shared technology package bring to Leili?

In selecting partners for cooperation, Leili prefers working with compound fertilizer manufacturers who share common values with Leili. Additionally, partners need to have a qualified technical team. Leili will help them resolve technical problems to facilitate their technical upgrade and production capacity according to the characteristics of each partner, such that they can achieve high efficiency with low input. Leili would very much welcome cooperation with prime agricultural enterprises and large production bases in the promotion of Leili’s crop balance nutrition solutions.

The “balanced agricultural development” concept initiated by Leili has been widely recognized among partners across 80 countries. Given the opportunities available to perform compound fertilizer upgrades, Leili is ready to establish an environmentally friendly inclusive mode of development by building compound fertilizer demonstration production bases that authorize production technique and supply core raw materials.  The operation will take the form of “dual-brand running” and with collaboration between the best entities will jointly serve agricultural enterprises. For cooperation with leading enterprises, Leili will agree to use the brand of these industry leaders and provide licensed production technology and core raw materials. To this end, Leili’s target is to make two 1-million-ton achievements – 1 million tons from the Chinese market and 1 million tons from the international market.  Leili is fully prepared to cooperate with partners by providing its technical brand and solutions, instead of focusing on equity participation. Looking at the 100-billion -yuan market, Leili will concentrate on providing support for technical upgrades and providing service to premium plantations. 

Over the last few years, Leili has experienced two upgrades; one was a technical upgrade, which enabled farmers to spend less but earn more, while the other was the upgrade of the business model, which spurred Leili to develop faster, driven by shared technology. Based on its technical service and ongoing investment in innovation, Leili is endeavoring to establish a triple-level combined technical development mechanism: original technology, formula-based technology, and applied technology. All three levels will focus on crop nutrition and soil improvement, which will serve as a guideline for the future development of the alginic acid compound fertilizer industry.