How can fertilizers improve the health of an entire nation, you may wonder: By giving the Finnish soil what it needs to produce healthy food.
All Yara fertilizer sold in Finland has a special local ingredient -- selenium. Selenium is a basic mineral that is essential to good health. Finland is a region known for low soil selenium. Yara's selenium supplements compensate for the lack of selenium in Finnish soil, and thereby improves animal and human health.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), selenium is important in humans to protect tissues against oxidative stress and to maintain the body's defense systems against infection. Severe deficiency can result in general fatigue, hypothyroidism, and Keshan disease, leading to a specific condition where a weakening of the heart impacts general health.
'Fertilizer is an excellent vehicle for bringing selenium to the entire population,' says Iris Erlund, a researcher at the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Helsinki, Finland.
Plants are the main dietary source of selenium, but the selenium content of food depends on the level of selenium in the soil where plants are grown or animals are raised. By supplementing Yara fertilizers with sodium selenate, plants can convert the inorganic selenium into organic forms, which are more efficiently utilized by humans and animals.
For example: Applying selenium in grassland fertilizer increases the selenium uptake by the grass and therefore increase the selenium supply to the animals and humans via meat and dairy products. Fortification of fertilizers is therefore crucial to improve the daily diet in Finland and preserving animal and human health.
'Selenium is a fantastic example of what we can do by adding minerals into the food chain an how we can impact the human health by providing the right nutrients to people,' says Jari Pentinmäki, Yara Head of Marketing Nordic Region.
Yara is now applying the knowledge gained in Finland in other places in the world with low selenium soils, like for example the UK and Ireland.
Yara International ASA published this content on 12 October 2017 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 12 October 2017 14:44:07 UTC.
Original documenthttp://yara.com/media/news_archive/farming_for_better_health.aspx
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Yara International ASA is a worldwide leader in producing and selling mineral fertilizers. Net sales break down by activity as follows:
- production and sale of mineral fertilizers (72.8%): 26.4 million tons sold in 2022 of simple nitrogenated fertilizers (calcium nitrates, urea, etc.), complex fertilizers (nitrogen- phosphorous- and potassium- based), specialty fertilizers (plant nutrition products, potassium nitrates, etc.), and magnesium- and sulfur-based fertilizers. Net sales are distributed by geographic area between Europe (32.9%), Americas (48.8%), Africa and Asia (18.3%);
- sale of industrial chemical products (18.5%): 7.4 million tons of nitrogen based chemical products sold (including ammonia, nitric acids, ammonium nitrates) for the automotive, construction, waste treatment, shipping, chemical, mining and animal feed industries;
- production of ammonia (8.1%). The group also develops ammonia trading activity;
- other (0.6%).
At the end of 2022, the group had 26 production sites worldwide.
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: Europe (35.4%), Brazil (25.6%), Latin America (8%), Asia (12.6%), North America (12.4%) and Africa (6%).
YARA INTERNATIONAL ASA 
