Grønn Gjødsel won the agricultural development award in 2019

Grønn Gjødsel has won the agricultural development award in 2019.
Grønn Gjødsel has made an environmental problem into an important resource. This afternoon, the green business from Rakkestad won the national agricultural development award in 2019.

The award was presented by Minister of Agriculture and Food Olaug Bollestad and Director of Sustainability in Innovation Norway Inger Solberg, in connection with the International Grüne Woche in Berlin.

The Viken based company is doing this with the first prize of a total of NOK 250000. The other two nominees for this year's business development award in agriculture are Buggegården in Vestfold and Ragnhild and Jonas Viken who runs the Viken Østre horticulture company, the food processing company Grønne Folk and the health service Level in Trøndelag.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Olaug Bollestad is impressed with the winner from Østfold.

- The business development price in agriculture will help to highlight the exciting developments happening in Norwegian agriculture. Grønn Gjødsel helps to lift agriculture in a more sustainable direction. This is in line with the development we want in agriculture going forward, which will be both environmentally efficient and value-adding, says Minister of Agriculture and Food Olaug Bollestad.

- It was surprising but incredibly fun to win this award. The award is a recognition that what we do is right and that others see it. The award is a driving force in further work, says Lars Riiser Evju, CEO of Grønn Gjødsel AS.

The only country
Grønn Gjødsel is run by the couple Lars Riiser Evju and Janet Narvestad Evju, who started their activities in agriculture and poultry production. In 1985, the company started with pelleted organic fertilizers to utilize all the raw materials from poultry production. Since then, the company has developed into what is today called Grønn Gjødsel A/S. Chicken manure was pelleted in its own factory room in Rakkestad. This year, the company is completing its latest project where they use fish sludge as raw material in pelleted fertilizer. Fish sludge is challenging to get rid of the fishing industry, but with Grønn Gjødsel the sludge has found its way to agriculture.

Impressive growth
- Grønn Gjødsel have shown the will and ability to constantly develop new and sustainable fertilizer products based on biological waste. The winner has over time been market-oriented and ambitious, and has created an exciting business with international potential, says Inger Solberg, director of sustainability in Innovation Norway

Grønn Gjødsel has become an important premise and a driving force for the development of organic agriculture in Norway. Today, the company has customers all over Norway within a wide range of industries and has a strong profitability and has created many jobs in the hometown.

Facts about the Business Development Award in Innovation Norway

• Innovation Norway awards the annual business development award in agriculture on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
• It is an enterprise and business development award for those who have established a successful business or industry based on rural and agricultural resources.
• There is a winner in each county who receives NOK 50,000.
• The county winners then take part in the national competition of NOK 250,000.
• The national award was presented during the Grüne Woche in Berlin on January 16, 2019.