Latest / Hydroponics Daily / UK Fertiliser Rules Could Wipe Out Small Hydro Brands — What You Need to Know

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UK Fertiliser Rules Could Wipe Out Small Hydro Brands — What You Need to Know · Hydroponics Daily

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome back to Hydroponics Daily and feel a bit of a fraud saying
• 0:04
  daily because in 2025 we did a podcast every single day and haven't done one
• 0:09
  since the start of January so it's been a long time and that's because we've moved location,
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  we've got a new Utrema HQ and the good
• 0:20
  upside of that is that we've got this nice tiny tiny little office
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  that is padded and makes a fantastic podcast
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  studio so hopefully the audio will be even better than it
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  was before and yeah so
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  what why have i not done a podcast in three four
• 0:36
  months it's because we've moved location we've been crazy busy
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  with lawn care now the uk hydroponic
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  industry sector has been very low very dull
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  for a number of number of years now and even
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  though i love hydroponics i love horticulture it's actually
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  not what's paying the bills and it's not what's gone
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  bonkers busy with lawn care and sports
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  turf and arable crops this year so really
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  hydroponics has been flatlined and dead
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  even though we have fantastic products for hydroponics and we love it we
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  have grow room set up here at facilities and
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  we mess around with plants all day every day it's really
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  not been what's paying the bill so really hard to justify
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  spending the time getting out on the road to hydro shops and
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  doing podcasts and videos and things like that so it's really disappointing hopefully
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  it'll turn around soon however the subject.
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  Of today's podcast is not good news i'm going.
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  To be talking about something that is potentially armageddon for.
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  A lot of nutrient brands in the hydroponic sector
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  and certainly will result in lots of them reducing their product portfolio i.
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  Can see a world where only a few nutrient brands remain with much lower selection
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  obviously the big guys the dutch the canners the advanced nutrients will be
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  able to survive this armageddon and.
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  Yeah, hopefully, well, our Utreme will be fine because we sell so much into
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  other sectors. So we'll still supply growth shops when they contact us.
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  And if we've got the product, we'll send it out to them.
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  I recorded this next bit as a video that went on to Instagram.
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  So it may seem like I'm referring to a website, a UK government website.
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  It is a UK focused podcast. So if you're in America, it's talking about basically UK regulation.
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  So if you're in America, you can stop listening now because it's not going to
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  value unless you're interested in that it's going to be about new laws that
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  come into coming into effect that means that the costs of fertilizer are going
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  to ramp up and fertilizer can disappear in the UK and if you're using UK brands
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  that might be of interest to you because they may not be able to supply into
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  America in the future all right so here we go.
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  Hello there, I'm Dr. Russell Sharp and you might be watching this on a video
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  or listening to it on a podcast.
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  It may be a podcast or a video about hydroponics or it may be about lawn care
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  or agriculture and that's because what I'm going to talk about today is relevant
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  to every sector of growing crops and this is the new fertilizer regulations
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  that are going to be brought into the UK.
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  Now it's a consultation at the moment but don't kid yourself,
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  this is coming in and it's going to be Armageddon for the fertiliser industry.
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  So there's a consultation where people can give their views,
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  but don't kid yourself into thinking that your views will be really listened to.
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  I think this is going to be shoehorned through because it's going to align us
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  with the EU and there are big forces that want us to be aligned with the EU.
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  So obviously, greater alignment with the EU is because of bullying by the European
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  Union so that we comply with their rules and we get punished for Brexit.
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  We cannot have our own rules.
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  And for a long time, the UK has had some really good fertiliser regulations.
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  Basically, it was common law. You had to say your products had to contain what they said they were.
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  Otherwise, they were illegal. So if you said they contained 12% nitrogen,
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  they had to contain 12% nitrogen.
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  They almost treated you like an adult. There was no registration.
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  If you thought there was registration for fertilisers, you were wrong. That's not true.
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  In Europe, many European countries with the exception of Holland and Ireland
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  until recently, there was registration in every single individual state, but not an EU level.
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  Now, that's changed for biostimulants. And for the UK, we're going to have a
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  registration for fertilizers and biostimulants.
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  Now, fine, you might think I'll pay a registration fee, and all the companies
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  will do that. However, it's not going to be as simple as that.
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  They have to be, every fertilizer has to be tested and biostimulant for efficacy.
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  So they have to get to a third party lab, an independent lab,
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  and all of the costs that are involved with that, they have to be tested for
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  efficacy proof they work.
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  My big problem with that is not only is it going to be a massive expense it's also
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  going to lead to loads of people just sticking nitrogen in their products because
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  they'll say yes it increased growth because you can stick a seaweed extract
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  and stick some nitrogen in and it will just grow better so it's absolute nonsense
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  the efficacy tests then you have to test for toxins including things like copper
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  which are already in fertilizers anyway so not sure about that things for cadmium
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  and stuff like that which is obviously very useful.
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  It's going to mean that you're going to have to potentially disclose your formulation
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  and fertilizers and biostimulants are not patented in
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  general they are know-how we protect our know-how
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  here at utrema and we don't declare our
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  formulations unless they are hazardous there's
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  a hazardous ingredient and this is going to be loss of intellectual property
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  to large multinational companies and so
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  that's a big concern of mine now these are not
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  pesticides and they're not medicines so they're not pasted they're
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  low margin and these costs will have to be put on
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  to consumers whether that's farmers lawn
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  care people or hydroponic growers and it
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  will mean that a lot of companies will cease to
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  exist that to register one fertilizer will mean
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  that it just won't be economically viable for a lot
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  of brands and so a lot of brands will just shut up shop shop in
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  hydroponics for example there's brands with like 30 40 offerings
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  you know one company isn't it atami they've got like loads of pk products so
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  they may rationalize down to just one pk product and so you might find far fewer
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  products on the market and and the reason well let me go into the reasons why
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  this is being pushed obviously the likes of keir starmer who want eu alignment.
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  The research organizations they can see a cash cow coming here loads of efficacy
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  trails consultants can see a load of money coming here but and then consultants
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  or the name you know parasites they're going to want their chunk.
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  But the key thing here is big multinational agrochemical companies can see this
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  as a fantastic barrier to entry for new fertilizer and biostumulent companies.
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  You can just stop new products coming to the market and new companies,
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  more importantly, coming to the market by providing a massive cost barrier to
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  launching it. So you need to get money from the City of.
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  Put serious money into it to launch any product in
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  future in the uk whereas before new companies could
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  could set up so this is great for the large multinationals bayern bsf from germany
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  adama icl especially icl in lawn care they're in horticulture they're going
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  to love it the israelis adama and icl the chinese and genta the americans du
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  pont people like this Cortiva.
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  No, there are no big British chemical fertilizer companies or biostalint companies
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  anymore in the UK. We have destroyed that industry and this is going to make
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  it even more foreign-owned and foreign-controlled.
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  Now, Eutrema, we're going to be okay because we've got, we've sort of grown
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  to the point now where we can absorb these costs.
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  We've got some fantastic products that are selling really well.
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  And one of the things I've always done is not increase the product portfolio
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  and product offerings unless there's a valid reason to do that so we've kept
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  our portfolio really really tight and even in hydroponics we've only got one or two,
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  products that we actually offer and so we don't haven't expanded into an a and
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  a b and a bloom and a flower and a veg and a hard water and a soft water and
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  a pk for this and a pk for mid flowering and a finisher and this and that and
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  a ph up and a ph down because the.
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  Everyone else has already got that they're generic and the
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  the the registration costs the regulatory costs
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  are going to be massive to have a range of 20 30
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  products so we're going to if you need any help with
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  this as it goes along feel free to contact me because it's
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  i think it's a it's an issue that i think is going
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  to be massive they're even like threatening you with prison
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  if you don't comply with these regulations and they
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  they're going to have a body that can come in and seize documents and
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  seize goods and things like this really stalinistic proposals on this website
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  which i'm going to go through in a sec and my other reason i don't like it is
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  that it's not going to stop people selling carcinogenic fertilizers which is
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  my one of my big book first even with this these new registrations you could
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  still sell and in europe you can still sell.
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  Carcinogenic cobalt sulfate as a fertilizer because
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  people can make some money out of it for no valid reasons
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  so in summary far fewer competitors
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  or competition and far smaller product
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  lines so if you're a hydroponic shop for example your your
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  your range will vastly reduce once these fertilizer reforms
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  are enacted now on this website here the consultation
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  if you just have a look at that consult.defra.gov.uk fertilizer
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  team but if you just ask chat gpt or gemini to find it
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  for you it will find it there's loads and loads of
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  information here it's really and there's a hundred questions I
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  filled in on my consultation just to me and myself over
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  here you can do an online survey and give your feedback and I
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  just went through and gave my feedback on it and a lot of it you you you probably
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  get bored by the time you've done 90 to about 80 questions so there's nothing
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  for small producers there's no mention of sort of grandfathering anything over
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  and you know you'll see the EU mentioned a lot.
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  So I think this is going to be massive. I think you need to be aware of it and
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  preparing for it and have some money in the bank prepared for it.
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  All these massive costs for testing, toxin evaluation, and if you think that
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  it's wrong and if you think we should keep with the common law,
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  one that served us well until now, then fill in this form and say so. Okay.