PepsiCo partners fertiliser firm Yara to decarbonise crop production in Europe

PepsiCo Europe and global fertiliser firm Yara have announced a long-term partnership in Europe aimed at providing farmers with crop nutrition programmes to help decarbonise the food value chain.

As part of the partnership, which spans multiple countries, participating PepsiCo Europe farmers will be equipped with best-in-class crop nutrition products and advice as well as precision farming digital tools.

Companies said this will allow farmers to increase nutrient use efficiency (NUE), boost yields and reduce the carbon footprint of their crops. 

Yara will deliver up to 165,000 tons of fertiliser per year to PepsiCo, covering around 25 per cent of their crop fertiliser needs in Europe by 2030. These fertilizers will be mostly Yara Climate Choice fertilisers, which include low-carbon footprint fertilisers produced from either renewable ammonia or low-carbon ammonia via carbon capture and storage, currently under construction in Yara Sluiskil.

The mix will also include Yara’s standard premium nitrate-based mineral fertilisers produced using natural gas, which have a carbon footprint that is around 50 per cent lower than most non-EU fertilisers thanks to the use of catalyst technology.

The aim of the partnership is to upgrade to Yara Climate Choice fertilisers over time as production scales up and technologies mature so that all of the 165,000 p.a. tons are Yara Climate Choice fertilisers by 2030.

“This partnership with Yara aligns with our end-to-end transformation known as PepsiCo Positive (pep+) and will be critical as we transition towards the net-zero food system of the future,” said Archana Jagannathan, chief sustainability officer at PepsiCo Europe.

“Targeting Scope 3 emissions is central to our pep+ agenda, but it can be one of the most challenging areas to directly influence. Providing our farmers with fertilizers that have a lower carbon footprint and supporting them to improve crop nutrition end-to-end will allow us to make a significant step towards our target of achieving net zero by 2040.”

Mónica Andrés Enríquez, executive vice president for Europe at Yara, added: “To grow a nature-positive food future and transform our food system, we need to collaborate across the food value chain. We’re excited to work with first movers like PepsiCo to help make this a reality. Decarbonising food production will be critical to delivering on the Paris Agreement – and farmers will play a key role in helping us get there.”

The partnership, which will help drive the adoption of regenerative agricultural practices, will include approximately 1,000 farms, covering a total of around 128,000 hectares across the European Union and the UK. Efforts will initially focus on potatoes, a key crop for PepsiCo, and then expand to other crops such as oats and corn.

Fertilisers are the biggest opportunity to reduce emissions as fertiliser production and in-field emissions account for half of PepsiCo’s average potato carbon footprint in Europe.