Being the First of its Class

Atlas Fertilizer Corporation (AFC), incorporated on October 10, 1957, is the oldest operating and the first fertilizer company in the Philippines to achieve full scale manufacturing of a complete line of mixed fertilizer grades, alternatively known as compound inorganic fertilizer and more famously called by our farmers as the NP- NPK- NK fertilizers.

N-stands for Nitrogen, while P-stands for Phosphorus and K- stands for Potassium. These are the primary elements required by plants to support its nutrient requirements during the different growing stages from maturity upto harvest.  The correct amount of fertilizer nutrients that will be applied, will depend on the available nutrients present in the soil. This amount should harmonize with the requirements of the crop and variety that will be planted in a specific field in order to attain bountiful harvest.

Market Leadership and our Competitive Advantage

Since 2004 to today, AFC is 100% percent wholly owned by Sojitz Corporation: A global trading company based in Tokyo, Japan which now controls 42 percent of the NP, NK and NPK market share in the country. Our more than 57 solid years of experience, enriched by our Filipino heritage and history in the fertilizer industry, combined now with the excellent business acumen approach and unwavering discipline of our Japanese shareholders, is our major competitive advantage to produce better quality fertilizer products and fertilizer technologies for our customers.

As early as 1996, AFC has been developing fertilizer technologies that fit each crop’s requirement in order to sustain its growth and produce optimum yield. These efforts were enhanced and strengthened by collaborating with different research institutions such as the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI), University of the Philippines-Los Baños (UPLB), Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR) and the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA). These technologies are anchored on the principles of the Site-Specific Nutrient Management (SSNM) concept that aims to provide nutrients to crops using the right nutrient source, applied at the right amount in the right place and at the right time. In the past years, AFC has successfully developed and deployed these technologies in the field.We are the only fertilizer company in the Philippines that deploys agronomists, people who are equipped with knowledge of proper fertilization technologies, in the field to teach farmers the best way to fertilize their crops. Our goal is to provide the farmers with the appropriate fertilizer technologies that will result to higher yields and better income for them.

Because we are committed to continuously contributing to Philippine Agriculture through our quality fertilizer and technologies, we are constantly reinventing our business approach following global standards on our work processes, work guidelines and quality control.

AFC also believes that companies must not concern in the pursuit of profit alone but rather must strive and work to develop our business while pursuing and making an endeavor to make a meaningful contribution to the society. Thus, we are also proud to say that we are the first fertilizer company in the Philippines to establish a strong compliance framework while doing business in the agriculture sector.

Our business core activities following this approach is to ensure adherence to laws, regulations and corporate ethics and at the same time approaching issues openly and directly with awareness of compliance and by including our business partners in our ongoing programs. This compliance system and mechanism help us sustain our growth as a company, providing us with a powerful competitive advantage in the industry to ensure our position as being the best among the best in the fertilizer business.

Fertilizer of the Future & Leading the Right Way

Fundamentally, AFC believes that the right approach to farming must be based on science. Each farmer must be able to use an effective and efficient fertilization technology. This scientific method to farming ensures more yield and in so doing, farming becomes a very profitable business for any Filipino farmer. Because of this fundamental advocacy, rather than focusing on producing traditional grades usually available in the market, AFC has been producing customized grades of fertilizers more suited for a specific crop with a specific soil. We normally call these fertilizers as the “Non-Traditional Grades”.

From the word itself, these are fertilizers not traditionally produced by many fertilizer companies in Southeast Asia, the whole ASEAN Pacific or even around the world. AFC is continuously evolving and finding better ways to develop unique types of fertilizers suited for different types of crops and soils to ensure that our farmers will get the true value for their money with every purchase of one sack of fertilizer. Each sack of fertilizer produced in our Plant is a product of all our passion and desire to give what our farmers truly deserve. AFC has been devoting much of our time and effort to promote the advantage of using Non- Traditional Grades to our Farmers throughout the archipelago by providing seminars, trainings, field trials and field demonstration on how this technology can be applied.

What AFC have been doing all these years…

The Following are the Summary of Atlas activities and programs through the years:

• 1995 ~ AFC used the Balanced Fertilization approach that was also promoted by the Department of Agriculture thru the Bureau of Soils and Water Management.

• 2002 ~ AFC started developing Fertilizer Application Technology (FAT) and Package of Technology (POT) for specific crops by conducting field trials and farm demonstrations

• 2005 ~ AFC started adoption of the Site-Specific Nutrient Management principles or SSNM for rice and corn. Farm trials were conducted in the major rice and corn producing areas in order to derive the appropriate fertilization technology for each specific site.

• 2008 ~ Site Specific Nutrient Management (SSNM) approach was fully used by AFC in recommending the tailored nutrient management program for a specific field and applying the following guidelines:

                > Right Amount

                > Right Source

                > Right Timing

                > Right Placement

• 2014 ~ During this year, we ventured into the use of the Crop Manager, a revolutionary tool for recommending fertilization technology to the rice farmers. This is an application software developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) specifically for AFC. This tool can be accessed thru the internet using personal computers and smart phones. The application software will automatically calculate the nutrient recommendation of a specific rice field based on the information that the farmers will provide such as; yield, field size, previous fertilization practices, season, rice variety and other data that will affect the recommendation. The resulting fertilization recommendation will include the amount and type of fertilizers to be used and the right timing of application.

AFC’s mission and commitment…

With our quality products and appropriate fertilization technologies, AFC can continuously contribute to the development and fast growth of the Philippine Agriculture by improving the individual farmers’ yield and AFC strongly believes in the empowerment of our Filipino farmers by providing access to better fertilization technologies that will help them attain better farming operations to produce better yield which will translate to better income and a better life for the farmers, as well as contribute to the food security program of our country.