Press release
12.6.2025
Pentti Malaska Futures Award to Soilfood Ltd
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Soilfood celebrated its 10-year journey on World Environment Day, June 5th, 2025.
– Circular economy is hard. The concentrations or quantities of potential raw materials are often wrong, or the side stream is located far from the end market. Legislation doesn’t always support innovation either. That’s why I want to thank our partners — together, we’ve succeeded in circular economy. Some have been with us for the entire 10 years, said CEO Eljas Jokinen in his anniversary speech.
Soilfood was founded in 2015 when Eljas Jokinen and Juuso Joona met Saara Kankaanrinta and Ilkka Herlin. They shared the same values and saw the opportunities in circular economy.
– Soilfood combines strong agronomic expertise with industrial understanding. I dare say that’s unique, summarized Juuso Joona in his own speech.
Rooted in Baltic Sea Work
– Saara and I had founded the BSAG Foundation in 2008 to work for the Baltic Sea, and agriculture was identified as one of the key focus areas. At the time, it was one of the main contributors to the eutrophication of the Baltic Sea — and still is, explained Ilkka Herlin, reflecting on the events that led to the founding of Soilfood.
In 2010, BSAG organized a summit together with the President and Prime Minister of Finland.
– At our suggestion, Finland committed to becoming a model country for nutrient recycling. The aim was not only to circulate nutrients but also to improve soil structure so that valuable elements would benefit crops instead of contributing to excess phosphorus fueling blue-green algae, Herlin said.
– One way to achieve this is through business – someone has to collect, process, transport, and sell those nutrients. And since no one else stepped up, we decided to do it ourselves, added Saara Kankaanrinta.
Ten years have passed since that starting point. During those years, a market for recycled fertilizers has been built in Finland, and over 2 million tons of industrial side-stream-based products have been delivered to customers. More than 8 million kilograms of virgin nitrogen and over 3 million kilograms of phosphorus have been replaced with recycled nutrients.
– We’ve been pushing against the wind for nearly the entire ten years. The vision of Finland as a model country for nutrient recycling remained mostly in speeches, and the system has clung tightly to old structures. Still, Soilfood has grown and evolved — and that’s something we can all be proud of, Joona concluded.