SUSTAINABILITY
REPORT
2021

1

MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Letter from the President of the Board

I am pleased to greet you and thank you for sharing with us Profertil’s 11th Sustainability Report. I recently had the honor of being appointed chair of the board of directors of this great company, so it is a pleasure for me to communicate with all of you from this position.

We are aware of the relevance of this document, because the company publicly reports on its commitment to the triple bottom line: environment, society and economic value. This document outlines concrete actions and verifiable indicators. It is important to emphasize that Profertil has been following this path for 11 years, consistently, uninterruptedly and evolving along the main lines of global trends.

The commitment, in short, is to reach together the goals set by the United Nations for 2030. These Sustainable Development Goals are a call to action so that, together, we can seek to put an end to poverty, protect the planet and ensure that future generations will live in peace and prosperity. Achieving them must be a commitment to which we must all urgently commit.

Thank you again for your attention and I invite you to continue with the letter from our general manager, who will give an account of the content of this important document.

Mg. María Martina Azcurra
President

Letter from the General Manager

We surpassed a decade of reporting on our sustainability actions and today I am pleased to greet you once again in the eleventh edition of this document. It is a document that all of us who make up Profertil build with immense pride and emotion, because here we give an account of the concrete actions that, over the last year, we have carried out in pursuit of sustainable work.

I say “sostenible” (in Spanish) because, starting with this edition, our Report will be called “Reporte de Sostenibilidad” in Spanish, slightly changing the title we have been publishing. The change responds to our intention to align ourselves with the main global trends in this area, mainly with the initiative that today guides many of our actions, the Sustainable Development Goals proposed by the United Nations for 2030. Conceptually, “sustentabilidad” and “sostenibilidad” are similar terms in Spanish, but the latter -the one we will use from now on- has a projective approach, looking to the future with a focus on responsible development and growth. Welcome, then, to our “Reporte de sostenibilidad (Sustainability Report)”

As usual, this paper reports on the last calendar year. For Profertil, 2021 was a year of enormous challenges, where one of the main players was the plant turnaround we had during the winter: it was the longest in our history and allowed us to conduct key works to increase the reliability of the Ingeniero White production facilities. In these lines it is worth acknowledging and congratulating the work team involved, who managed to complete it on time and in a timely manner, with excellent technical, safety and environmental results.

In addition, 2021 was the year of our twentieth anniversary. How proud each one of us is to be part of a first-class company with such a rich history. That is why we took advantage of it to leverage our commitment to the transformation of the industry towards sustainable agriculture. A cross-cutting group from all our divisions formed the Sustainability Team and is working hard in line with the SDGs prioritized by Profertil.

We have taken many steps in this direction and a milestone in 2021 was that we reached 60% of electricity supply from renewable sources at our Bahia Blanca Plant. This number is well above the 16% required by Act No. 27,191 for this year.

We cannot talk about the past year without remembering that we are still in a pandemic scenario, so the challenges for the work team were many and strong. The organization continued to work with hybrid schemes, with employees who continued with their tasks from home and others who, with the necessary care and protocols, continued to operate the plants and terminals in person. Our industry was declared essential by the National Government, so we had to redouble our efforts to continue working. The technology and procedures that were applied for this care were the subject of congratulations from fellow companies, our Port and governmental entities.

Our company, with more than 20 years of responsible and professional work, reached another important milestone in 2021: for the first time it placed negotiable bonds in the local market. With a total demand of USD 41 million, the bond issue reached USD 25 million (USD 5 million more than expected) through the dollar link instrument, at a rate of 2.49% and with a maturity of 24 months. The amount of the offering will be used to increase fertilizer production, to provide the Company with working capital and to reinforce the sustainability of the production complex. This issuance placed us at a new level, which demonstrates the professionalism and transparency with which our Company is managed, and of which we can be proud.

In addition, in a path that is necessarily intersected by technology and digitalization, together with the Rosario Stock Exchange (BCR) we launched the fertilizer module of the Muvin logistics app, which we currently use to manage the distribution of our products throughout the country. This work carried out by Profertil, thinking beyond its production stages, seeks to reach the entire product chain, benefiting the entire industry. This alliance is oriented to fertilizer logistics, where the protagonists are the customers, cargo terminals and transporters, key players in the commercialization of nutrients. With them, we constantly emphasize the importance of best agronomic management practices in the pursuit of sustainable agriculture.

From now on, our Sustainability Report will report with SASB indicators. A new standard that allows us to identify the main sustainability issues that directly impact our type of industry. These indicators will guide us towards what will be a new stage in our journey, when we reach the ESG Report (environment, society and governance), always thinking about deepening the proactive and forward-looking look of our work.

I really hope you enjoy this report. Not only because it is carried out with great dedication by a great work team, but especially because I am confident that you will find here extremely valuable information that shows how we do things, how we see the historic times ahead and how, day by day and from our individual places, all of us who make up Profertil are committed to sustainable industry and agriculture.

Federico Veller
General Manager