Haifa opens manufacturing plant in Georgia

SAVANNAH, Ga. – On May 5, Haifa Group officially commissioned a new state-of-the-art controlled release fertilizer (CRF) plant in Savannah, Georgia. The new production facility is expected to produce 20,000 metric tons per year of Haifa’s Multicote and CoteN CRF.

The Israel-based company has been selling CRF in the U.S. for 10 years, but the Savannah plant is its first manufacturing facility on U.S. soil. All materials were previously imported from Israel. 

Based on Haifa’s proprietary polymer coating technology, the new CRF facility significantly increases the group’s fertilizer coating capacity, and enables it to better serve the North American market. Haifa North America CEO Marc Lebl said the plant brings both enhanced production capabilities and the supply chain closer to its business partners. 

“The port here in Savannah drew us to the area because it was very accessible for us coming from the Middle East for raw materials from certain products,” Lebl said.

The 100,000-square-foot plant is located near two rail lines and an important supplier that provides the raw materials for coating urea, a component in Haifa’s CRF products. Lebl cited the economies of scale with regard to logistics as a contributing factor in the decision to choose Savannah. Another was the fact that the company already had a warehouse on the property.

Geography played a role as well.

“Our decision to construct a CRF production facility in Savannah, Georgia is part of our global strategy, aiming to meet a rapidly growing demand for Haifa’s advanced Multicote controlled release fertilizers, and to better service our customers in the turf, horticulture and agriculture industries,” said Nadav Shachar, CEO Haifa Group. "We are proud to be the only multinational CRF producer with production facilities located in three continents. This significant step reaffirms our commitment to our long-term growth plans, aiming to expand both presence and offerings to growers worldwide.”

North American Multicote sales manager Earl Chipman said about 60 percent of Haifa’s CRF sales go to horticulture, 25 percent to agriculture and 15 percent to the turf market. The predominant share of the horticultural sales go to container nurseries, with some soluble products being used in greenhouses.

The Savannah plant is strategically located to serve the Midwest market and Southeast market easily and the West coast by rail lines that head straight to California.

Haifa's new Savannah facility houses two blending drums with the capacity to add a third.

The new facility reflects an investment of over $10 million, and has the potential to create 20 additional jobs in the Savannah market. The design and location of the new plant facilitates a future option to increase the production capacity by 50 percent, to meet growing customer demand.

The facility houses a fully integrated laboratory to maintain the highest real-time quality control, in line with Haifa’s stringent global standards. Chipman said the Savannah facility has been set up to match the testing and quality control procedures at Haifa’s other plants.

“That’s where we think we stand out,” he said. “We know that the product we ship will perform exactly as it’s advertised to, because it’s been checked.”

The Savannah plant will supply North American customers with Haifa’s CRF products. This is accomplished by encapsulating the granules in a polymeric coating using Haifa’s Multicote technology. The patented technology optimizes nutrition in a single application, minimizes fertilizer losses by leaching, eliminates contamination of ground water and removes the dependency on irrigation.

For more: www.haifa-group.com

Photos provided by Haifa.