Creating new value with PROCOTE, 10 years on

Yara’s PROCOTE coating technology applies micronutrients or biostimulants to the surface of granular fertilizers, so farmers get all the nutrients they need for their crops in one product from the outset.

Today, PROCOTE is applied across regions including Brazil, North America, Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia. Its role varies by market, but the principle remains the same: creating more value from the same fertilizer base in a way that makes agronomic and commercial sense.

Technological breakthrough

PROCOTE began with a simple challenge: how to add more value to existing fertilizers without increasing production complexity.

At the time, farmers often relied on physical blends to apply micronutrients. While flexible, these blends could result in uneven nutrient distribution in the field, meaning some plants received more nutrients than others and higher application rates were often needed to achieve consistent results.

At the same time, producing multiple fertilizer variants with different micronutrient combinations added complexity in plants and logistics.

Yara saw an opportunity: to add micronutrients to fertilizers in a more precise and scalable way, while preserving product quality.

When development started around 15 years ago, existing coating solutions were typically water-based or relied on dry blends. These approaches had limitations, including weaker adhesion and potential impact on fertilizer quality.

The breakthrough came through a collaboration between Yara teams in Porsgrunn and Pocklington. They developed an innovative solution using an oil-based formulation rather than a water-based one. Coating the fertilizer with oil instead of water allowed the micronutrients to adhere better to the granules and preserved the underlying quality and performance of the fertilizer.

“At some point, it clicked,” recalls Alexandre Macedo, Senior Vice President Business Unit Africa, Yara.

“We understood that the challenge was not just to coat the fertilizer, but to do it without compromising what already worked. That’s when we knew we had something that could scale,” he adds.

The technology was patented and that was the start of PROCOTE.

From formulation to field

The next challenge was applying the technology consistently across different fertilizers, markets, and operating conditions.

“The product came relatively fast,” says Guilherme Xavier, Senior B2B Account Manager Yara Brazil.

“But a good lab formulation means little if you cannot apply it reliably at scale. We had to develop the entire application model, not just the product itself,” he adds.

PROCOTE had to prove its value in the field. It was tested in around 35 trials across 12 to 14 countries, covering different crops, soils, and environmental conditions.
  
“It wasn’t enough to show that the coating stayed on,” says Andrés Rángel, Technical & Portfolio Management in Biologicals. “The real question was whether it improved nutrient efficiency under real conditions.”

The results were consistent: more uniform nutrient distribution and improved efficiency. This led to the commercial launch of YaraVita PROCOTE in 2016.

Expanding the platform

As PROCOTE gained traction, it became more than a technical solution; it became a tool for differentiation.

It gave teams a way to introduce more value and helped farmers move from basic programs towards more complete solutions without changing everything at once.

“For me, that’s where PROCOTE proved its real value,” says Alexandre.

“It was never just about coating fertilizer. It allowed us to take something close to a commodity and turn it into a differentiated offer with clear agronomic benefit. In many markets, it became the first step toward broader, higher-value programs,” he adds.

After it became a proven solution with micronutrients, PROCOTE evolved into a broader platform. It now also enables the delivery of biostimulants within the YaraAmplix portfolio.

Today, PROCOTE represents around one quarter of Yara’s global Biologicals business, with more products in development.

How PROCOTE works

PROCOTE is Yara’s patented non-aqueous coating technology for granular fertilizers. It allows micronutrients, and more recently biostimulants, to be applied evenly onto each granule while preserving fertilizer quality, handling, and performance.

In practice, this helps improve nutrient distribution in the field, supports better nutrient use efficiency, and, in the case of biostimulants, improves crop resilience under environmental stress conditions.