Industry leaders share expert insight on nitrogen volatility, supply constraints, and the shift toward solutions-based crop nutrition

Pivot Bio, one of the world’s leading innovative agtech companies, today launched Pivotal Perspectives, a new content series designed to bring experienced, real-world viewpoints to the most important topics shaping agriculture today. The series debuted with a conversation examining why nitrogen markets have entered a new era of volatility and what that means for growers, the agricultural industry, and global food systems.

The first installment of Pivotal Perspectives features a discussion with Melih Keyman, founder of KEYTRADE and a Pivot Bio board member and investor with more than 40 years of experience in the global fertilizer industry, alongside Chris Abbott, CEO of Pivot Bio, and Chris Turner, Chief Commercial Officer. Drawing on decades of experience across global nitrogen markets, Keyman offered perspective on how structural forces, from energy dynamics and geopolitics to logistics and long-term demand growth, are reshaping how nitrogen is produced, traded, and delivered.

“The last five years have been the toughest period of my career to make predictions about nitrogen markets,” said Melih Keyman. “There is so much noise around supply and demand — energy, geopolitics, logistics — that volatility has become unavoidable.”

Keyman emphasized that while nitrogen is produced globally, the ability to deliver it when growers need it has become one of the industry’s most significant constraints. In the U.S., imported nitrogen can take 60 to 90 days to reach farms, making timing and logistics a critical factor for growers, and challenges with increased spring fertilizer buying patterns.

“The world is a smart place,” said Keyman. “If you look at history, our greatest innovations have come during times of stress. Today, we should be providers of solutions to our farmers instead of just fertilizer suppliers. By studying the soil and using new tools like synthetic biology, we’re finding better ways to make growers more efficient.”

That reality has direct implications for how growers plan and manage risk, according to Pivot Bio leadership.

“There are always moments where you wish you would have hedged earlier or done something differently,” said Chris Abbott, CEO of Pivot Bio. “The challenge for all of us is to learn from those moments and think forward about how we help growers navigate what comes next.”

Chris Turner, Chief Commercial Officer of Pivot Bio, said that as market conditions evolve, the industry is gaining greater clarity around what growers and distributors should plan for.

“If I put all of that together, what we’re feeling today, specifically in the U.S. market, is a new normal,” said Turner. “That’s the volatility that farmers and distributors should be bracing themselves for going forward.”

The conversation also highlighted the growing role of biological and technology-enabled crop nutrition approaches, which can complement traditional fertilizer programs by improving flexibility and supporting more consistent outcomes in an increasingly complex global market.

About Pivot Bio

Pivot Bio, one of the world’s leading agtech companies, delivers patented crop nutrition technologies that harness the power of nature to help farmers reliably and productively grow the food the world needs in the face of increasing volatility.

Currently available in North America and soon in Brazil, the company’s products represent a breakthrough innovation and one of the agriculture industry’s most promising solutions. Pivot Bio has been recognized three times by TIME magazine on its annual list of Best Inventions, by Fast Company on its World Changing Ideas and World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies lists, by CNBC on its Disruptor 50 list, by Fortune on its Impact 20 list, and by MIT Technology Review as one of 15 climate tech companies to watch. For more information, visit PivotBio.com.

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