A quality chain 'from the field to the table' lies at the heart of the quality strategy of the national food industry in Finland. The strategy brings together all the links in the food chain: farmers, companies that produce fertilizers and feed, the food industry, the wholesale and retail trade, authorities, advisory organizations and consumers.

The common objective is the construction of a watertight quality chain from the field to the table. It benefits the whole domestic food chain. The national objective that has been set is for all farms to come within the sphere of systematic quality work in 2006. The national quality strategy has been in operation since 1997.

Kemira GrowHow has been actively involved in the quality work for agriculture by, for example, taking part in instructing farmers. Production that follows environmental conditions laid down by the EU must be based on strict planning and bookkeeping for a specific area. Adjusting the amount of fertilizer according to the crop grown and the use of protective agents for plants are important in cultivation that follows the sustainable development principle, i.e. sparing the environment. The environmental friendliness of production is a vital part of the quality of end products. Consumers appreciate foods whose production methods have been researched and are environment-friendly.

Comprehensive solutions and growth programmes that are tailored for every cultivated plant and species have been developed from products and services. The crop target and the quality grade of the crop are the starting points in the development of the growth programmes. For example, the aim of the growth programme for malt barley is, through use of adjusted amounts of nutrients and the necessary plant protection, to create large-grain, low-protein barley to meet the needs of the maltster. Malthouses have been networked not only in Finland but also in Lithuania. Kemira GrowHow invests in cooperation with the food industry in areas in which it operates in different parts of the world, altogether in some 30 countries.

Kemira GrowHow gives a 'purity guarantee' to its fertilizer in Finland. It ensures that no heavy metals will accumulate from the fertilizer and thus the soil remains pure. This purity is a trump card in domestic production. The EU has given Finland exceptional authorization to keep the cadmium limit in its fertilizer lower than the general level in the EU.

The crop charts drawn from bird's eye photographs give information about the coming crop in the growing season. The information is used by the farmer to deal with the threat of diseases or in a good summer to give additional nutrients in order to guarantee a successful end result. A good crop is one that is of sufficiently high quality that it can be used for further processing. Producing a good crop is also wise management of the environment, because nutrients are eliminated from the field in a crop as precisely as possible.

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