Turning potato chips climate friendly in Argentina
Yara has signed a memorandum of understanding with El Parque Papas to deliver fossil free green fertilizers to the biggest potato farmer in Argentina. This marks an important step towards making one of the most popular snacks in the country climate friendly.
02.12.2022, Oslo, Norway: Yara has signed a memorandum of understanding with El Parque Papas to deliver green fertilizer in 2023. Yesterday, famous racing car champion turned farmer, Mr. Walter Hernández, met with Svein Tore Holsether, CEO of Yara, at the headquarters in Oslo to discuss the future collaboration for decarbonizing the production of potatoes in Argentina.
"Mass production of potato chips is actually a very complex operation involving many elements. My mission is to introduce a completely green, emission free potato in 2024. To do that, every company in the supply chain must take climate action. Collaboration is the only way to ensure that the end product is climate neutral. A farmer can only do so much. Yara helps us make the last piece of the puzzle emissions free – the fertilizer itself" says Walter Hernández, CEO of El Parque Papas.
El Parque Papas is the biggest singular potato farmer in Argentina. Led by Walter Hernández, they supply 14,000 metric tons of potatoes every year to the Argentinian potato industry, including production of some of the most popular chips in the country.
The fossil free, green fertilizers Yara will start producing next year will significantly reduce the carbon footprint of farming and food because they will be made with renewable electricity instead of natural gas. Using Yara´s green fertilizers for potato production will remove around 28.8 percent of greenhouse gas emissions at the farm level. For potato chips specifically, using green fertilizer will reduce the carbon footprint by around 5-10 percent.
"Most people probably don´t think about emissions when eating their chips. But there are huge opportunities to decarbonize snacks, if we find business models that enable each step of the value chain to contribute and to benefit. This is why the agreement between Yara and El Parque papas is important, we show that this can be done." says Svein Tore Holsether, CEO of Yara.
About Yara Green Fertilizer
Yara was the first company in the world to land a commercial agreement to sell fertilizers made with 100% renewable electricity and is one of the pioneers driving the introduction of green fertilizer to the world market. By choosing green fertilizers from Yara, food producers can lower their carbon emissions, which is required to reach the UN sustainability goals and Paris agreement. The production startup is planned to start up in the summer of 2023.
Attachments
- Yara signs MOU with El Parque Papas
- FIRST FARMER
- Historic collaboration for between Norway and Argentina.
