Holde Agri Invest and Toneli Holding sign a partnership to ensure circular farming

Holde Agri Invest, a Romanian company operating farmland, and Toneli Holding, the market leader in the production and distribution of consumer eggs in Romania, announce the signing of a partnership aimed at ensuring circular agriculture that includes both grain production and poultry breeding farms for eggs.

As part of the partnership, Holde Agri Invest will supply grain to Toneli Holding, while the consumer egg producer will supply manure, which Holde will use for farm crops. The two companies plan to collaborate in both organic and conventional farming. In addition, the two companies are also looking into the possibility of implementing an exchange program for compost production.

“We are thrilled to sign this partnership with Toneli Holding and are determined to increase the sustainability of our activities together. At Holde, we pay significant attention to organic farming using manure, as this is a long-term investment in protecting the soil and increasing its fertility by adding organic matter. The partnership with Toneli Holding reinforces our commitment to sustainable agriculture, and we are confident that together with our dynamic and technologically focused teams, we will contribute to improving the standards in Romanian agriculture,” stated Liviu Zăgan, CEO of Holde Agri Invest.

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“Livestock farms need a plant-based agriculture partner to ensure that manure is put back into circulation. According to studies in the field, the quality of manure is more important for soil biodiversity than the quantity of manure. Thus, more sustainable food production systems could be accelerated by applying appropriate, high-quality manure or manure-based biostimulants, such as manure from our farms, which is certified as an organic fertilizer. We are happy to have found in Holde Agri Invest a partner with whom we share the same vision for agriculture in Romania and its development potential in terms of sustainability,” stated Toni Khoury, Managing Partner of Toneli Holding SA.

The field of agriculture is constantly changing, especially in terms of the use of chemical fertilizers. For Romania, 2022 is the year when the EU fertilizer regulation is due to be implemented into national law. This regulation will regulate chemical fertilizers more strictly, making it easier for manure-based fertilizers to enter the market.

There is also a need at the EU level to standardize manure according to source, treatment method, and impact on biodiversity, which would lead to more careful use of manure by farmers. In this way, the negative impact of low-quality manure could be reduced, and the positive effects of high-quality manure could increase.

Holde Agri Invest currently operates a total area of almost 12,000 hectares in four areas: Roșiori, Frumușani, Videle and Conțești. At the same time, organic farming is one of the company’s differentiators, which currently focuses on large-scale, non-irrigated crops: wheat, maize, rapeseed, sunflower, peas, and barley. A large area of the Roșiori farm, approximately 2,000 hectares, is certified organic, and almost all of the harvest is exported to Western Europe. The demand for organic products in Europe and worldwide is growing, and Holde aims to have around 10-20% of the total area under organic cultivation in the medium to long term.

Toneli Holding is the largest egg producer in Romania, producing over 400 mln eggs annually. The company is the market leader, being present in all the trade channels – modern, traditional, and online trade, HoReCa, export, and industry, and in the case of modern trade, it holds 30% of the total volume of eggs sold. Toneli covers all breeding and production codes (organic, free-range, soil, battery, and liquid eggs) and controls the entire flow, from day-old chicks to shelf presence. The activity is completed by the production of poultry feed and the processing of manure resulting from the farms. Moreover, Toneli is an accredited supplier to the Royal House of Romania, McDonald’s, and IKEA.