£3million Brineflow fertiliser plant opens at Port of Sunderland

The distribution and storage hub has officially opened its doors after around five years in the planning.

The terminal will see Brineflow Ltd distribute liquid fertilisers to farmers between the Humber and Forth, creating around half a dozen jobs directly and breathing new commercial life into disused land at the port’s Youngs Quay.

Chairman John Fuller OBE, said: “Sunderland is perfectly placed to service the market from Scotland down to the Humber and across to the west coast and dovetails perfectly with our Norfolk terminals.

"We can now access over 90 per cent of the UK. The opening of our new North East hub at such a critical mid-point on the east coast will see Brineflow become a truly national company and will help us further increase our share of the UK’s ever-growing liquid fertiliser market.”

The move would help the Uk agricultural industry to be come more environmentally-friendly: “Over recent years, the market for liquid nitrogen fertilisers has been increasing rapidly as farmers the world-over race to become net-zero, leading to a surge in demand for our products from companies across the UK,” he said.

“Thanks to our investment in Port of Sunderland, there will no longer be a need for double handling or using single-use plastics, we’ll have complete environmental containment. In fact, the first time our fertilisers see the atmosphere will be when they emerge from the farmer’s spray nozzle in the field.

“With fewer steps, lower emission and zero waste, our new terminal will allow farmers to reduce their Total Environmental Impact by round a fifth compared to traditionally used fertilisers.”

Brineflow vowed to use local North East suppliers throughout development of the hub: “We made a commitment right at the beginning to ensure that every pound we spent on the development of the new hub was a pound that went right back into the local economy,” John added.

“This meant using local architects and civil engineers, right the way through to procuring local contractors for the construction and fit-out.”

The first phase will allow the company to store 9,010 tonnes of liquid nitrogen fertiliser, however planning permission has already been secured for the development of further space that would increase capacity four-fold.

And he paid tribute to the port and Sunderland City Council for their efforts to secure the deal: “We knew that, in order to fulfil our goal of being as economically and environmentally sustainable as possible, we’d need local knowledge to provide the attention to detail required and the Council and the team at the Port delivered that in spades.”

City council leader Coun Graeme Miller, said: “As a city, we made a commitment last year to become carbon neutral by 2040 and we’re absolutely thrilled to see Brineflow – a company which shares our passion for tackling climate change - investing in the Port of Sunderland.

“Just last year, Scandinavian start-up Wastefront AS announced plans to construct the UK’s greenest tyre recycling plant at the port and this continued investment by companies into the hub shows just how attractive a proposition the port – and the wider city – have to investors.

“We’re delighted to have supported Brineflow and look forward to working with them long into the future.”

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