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"The main challenge was to find a balance between the physical properties of the granular fertilizer. First, the pellet must be hard enough not to shatter during transport. At the same time, it must be easily soluble enough for the fertilizer to reach the soil," Veiko Kaufmann, coordinator of Roxtrade's fertilizer project, said of the years spent on the process of developing the pellets.

Kaufmann added that the plant enables the use of oil shale ash, which has been a problem so far, as a granular fertilizer in agriculture both in Estonia and abroad. "Southern European countries are interested in this form of fertilizer. In the long run, the whole of Scandinavia is also a potential export market," he said.

According to Ain Lepik, product manager of Scandagra Eesti, oil shale ash not in granular form needed a special ash spreader to be spread on the field and the ash had to be transported by tank trucks, but granulated oil shale ash can be spread with a kind of fertilizer spreader that every farmer has.

On Monday, the first two tons of fertilizer test granules of Estonian oil shale ash, which were produced in Germany, arrived on the field. Agronomist Erik Paalman, the head of Paali Seemnekeskus, was the first to fertilize a field with the fertilizer granules made of oil shale ash. Still this week, two more tons of test pellets will arrive at his household from Germany.