Azotic Technologies, the UK start-up spearheading farmers’ transition to sustainable nitrogen-fixation, has announced new appointments to develop and support its strategy for the commercial roll-out of its products within the EMEA region.

Harnessing the naturally occurring Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus (Gd), Azotic’s products Envita,^® (USA & Canada) and Encera™ (Europe) offer farmers a route to reducing their reliance on synthetic nitrogen. Gd forms a symbiotic relationship with all common broadacre crops, providing plants with an in-cell supply of nitrogen – fixed from the atmosphere – throughout the growing season.

Stepping into the newly created role of EMEA Commercial Director is Murat Dobooglu. Based in Türkiye, Dobooglu brings to Azotic more than three decades of agronomic, sales, marketing and technical experience from leadership roles in the conventional crop protection sector.

"Gd has outstanding potential and offers the best results compared to other, similar products, against which it’s well differentiated,” enthuses Dobooglu. “There’s a wealth of research and development behind this product and I strongly believe that we can use it to deliver significant crop benefits.

"In Europe, the Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategy place a duty upon us to reduce nutrient loss by 50% by 2030. Encera provides us with a superb opportunity to help deliver that goal, and enable farmers to reach it without unnecessary pressure or further restrictions.

"While our global objective is to bring unique yield enhancement technology to the market, each country may demand a slightly different approach,” says Dobooglu.

"Our priorities for EMEA will reflect that reality, working with our customers to develop the technical, financial and environmental case for the product, and identifying the appropriate channels to allow Azotic to become a key partner in the production of plentiful, healthy food, with minimal environmental impact and reduced carbon emissions.”

Dobooglu’s strategy for the Northern European region will be supported by Joe Griffiths, based at the company’s global offices in York, UK. Griffiths takes on the role of Technical Sales Manager for the UK and Northern Europe. Previously Field Development Lead on Encera, the Sheffield University graduate is excited by the potential for sustainable nitrogen in agriculture.

"We’ve been talking for decades about nitrogen fixation in wheat and now we not only have a viable solution for wheat, but also for corn, rice, potatoes, sugar beet and even protected crops like tomatoes.

"With this kind of versatility, Encera has the potential to be a truly added value product. The challenge will be to use our extensive trials and farm-scale experience from North America and combine that with local on-farm demonstrations in the UK and Europe to showcase the product’s effectiveness across a wide range of conditions.

"We are working hard to provide farmers and advisers with the support and knowledge they need to adapt to these novel inputs, so they can use them with the same degree of confidence they have for conventional crop chemistry."

"Envita launched in the North American market in 2019, and UK farmers were the first in Europe to use Encera in 2022," says Tom Tregunno, Global Market Manager. "We’re excited how the early European results complement those we’ve seen over four years of commercial use in Canada and the US.

"Attracting top talent to Azotic has always been part of our roll-out strategy and these new appointments will help us deliver on our promise to provide European farmers with a viable and effective sustainable nitrogen-fixing option."

About Envita & Encera

Azotic™ focuses its efforts on developing and commercializing the use of sustainable nitrogen in agricultural applications. Our management and scientific teams work to revolutionize world food production methods.

After nearly 20 years of research, Azotic Technologies’ leading researcher, Professor Edward Cocking FRS, pioneered the development of a nitrogen-fixing bacteria, allowing farmers to enjoy reduced production costs while protecting their local environments. With this N-fixing technology, our advances in agricultural science have been globally recognised for their part in sustainable farming practices.

Envita®/Encera™ is Azotic’s flagship product. Its active ingredient is a naturally occurring, food-grade bacteria – Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus (Gd) – originally discovered in sugarcane. Envita forms a symbiotic relationship with the host plant and provides a season-long supply of nitrogen to cells throughout the plant, both above and below ground.

Encera™ is registered for all broadacre crops including maize, cereals, pulses and potatoes, while Envita® is further used in canola and cotton.