For 30-plus years, Fertmark has provided a world-leading quality assurance system that protects farmers from the environmental and economic risks of using substandard fertiliser.

When New Zealand’s government withdrew from regulating fertiliser quality in the 1990s, farmers suddenly faced a dilemma that could cost them millions: how could they trust what was in their fertiliser?

Federated Farmers of New Zealand stepped in. Supported by a $135,000 AGMARDT grant for the “establishment of Fertmark and promotion of the scheme” in 1993, Fertmark was launched to independently assess fertiliser quality, so that farmers could be assured of the nutrient content of fertilisers they used.

Since 1908, farmers had been protected by the Fertiliser Act, which regulated nutrient ingredients in fertilisers, protecting farmers from unsubstantiated claims. When government repealed the Fertiliser Act in the 1990s, this protection vanished. Farmers faced the risk of purchasing substandard products, over-applying fertiliser to compensate for nutrient content, or under-nourishing their crops – all of which spelled bad news for both farm economics and environmental outcomes.

AGMARDT’s involvement in solving this problem was apt, because the trust itself emerged from New Zealand’s phosphate mining history. AGMARDT was established in 1987 by the New Zealand government with $32 million in funds from the wind-up of the Phosphate Commission. Education on the ‘right product, right place, right rate, right time’ for farm inputs was something of a focus for AGMARDT at the time, having supported the Agrichemicals Education Trust in 1992 with a $620,000 grant for agrichemicals education, and the New Zealand Vegetable & Potato Growers’ Federation with a $22,500 grant to develop an agrichemical users’ code of practice in 1991.

The birthing process of Fertmark was “sometimes agonising”, then-executive director Richard Christie told the NZ Fertiliser Manufacturers Research Association Conference in 1995, with the product classification taking considerable effort. “It was hard slog, as getting a disjointed competitive industry to agree on a whole range of matters including technical problems was never going to be easy.”

Those challenges were overcome, and Fertmark was created as an independent audit system requiring fertiliser products to meet specified quality standards. After launching in October 1993, its certification became a recognised industry standard, with the Fertmark tick on packaging representing a guarantee to farmers that the nutrient content and performance claims promised on the label were actually in the bag.

The programme’s success led to Spreadmark in 1994, focusing on fertiliser application quality. Between 2006 and 2022, spreading efficiency improved by 36%, delivering estimated annual savings of $170 million to farmers.

The government seal of approval came in 2000, when Fertmark’s Code of Practice was assessed as compliant with the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Act 1997. This meant Fertmark-certified fertilisers automatically complied with regulations covering food safety, animal welfare, and heavy metal standards. Then-executive director Kevin Geddes commended the foresight in setting up the Fertmark scheme seven years earlier. “It is a measure of the success of the Fertmark scheme that the member companies of Fertmark have been able to work with MAF to develop a code for the good of the industry,” he said.

“I wish our Australian cousins well in their development of similar systems but, as with rugby, we are well ahead.” – Neil Barton, chair of the Fertiliser Quality Council in 2010

The scheme didn’t go unnoticed overseas. In 2010, the Fertiliser Quality Council highlighted that New Zealand’s industry-led systems like Fertmark and Spreadmark were well ahead of Australia’s, where each State and Territory set its own fertiliser regulations. Then-chair Neil Barton noted, “I wish our Australian cousins well in their development of similar systems but, as with rugby, we are well ahead.”

Today, several major fertiliser companies produce over 70 products that carry the Fertmark tick, audited by QCONZ on behalf of the Fertiliser Quality Council. The Code of Practice for Nutrient Management encourages farmers to investigate the use of Fertmark quality-assured products, as part of responsible fertiliser use for environmental stewardship.

The scheme continues evolving, with work underway to expand coverage to new product categories, such as liquids.

Grant: 1874/93 Establishment of “Fertmark” and promotion of the scheme (loan converted to grant)
Date: 1993–1995