AgCert, the Dublin-based company which trades greenhouse gas credits derived from agricultural waste, has won regulatory approval to sell its first certified emission reductions (CERs), enabling the company to start generating its first income.

Until now, even though it had secured advance sales worth €94 million, the group had been unable to sell CERs until the system had been ratified by the United Nations.

Chief executive Bill Haskell said that gaining approval from the UN was " a great step" for the company and created a very positive outlook for the future.

In a statement yesterday, AgCert said it posted a loss of €19.3 million last year after spending significant money developing the business. It also said it formed a strategic partnership with US power group AES.

Under the terms of the partnership, AgCert has secured a pre-payment of as much as €60 million from AES for the purchase of CERs to be delivered between 2008 and 2012.

This is on top of the €94 million worth of credits already secured from other institutions, including Ireland's ESB. It has also placed a 9.9 per cent stake with AES at €2.66 per share.

Mr Haskell attributed last year's loss to the rapid growth of the business. At the end of 2005, AgCert had more than 400 biodigesters, compared with only 8 at the end of the previous year. It also increased its headcount from 20 in January to 240 today.

The 400 operational sites are expected to generate more than 20 million CERs over the next 10 years, according to Mr Haskell.

AgCert, which was set up in 2002 and raised €91 million selling shares on London's AIM in June, uses a technique called biodigestion to eliminate methane, a greenhouse gas, from animal waste produced on farms.

For doing this, AgCert gets reduction credits, known as offsets, which it sells to industries whose emissions exceed the Kyoto limits.

The retail price of these allowances has soared from about €7 a tonne last year to more than €26 per tonne currently.