ADM animal nutrition: new plants

Archer Daniels Midland company (ADM) opened a new feed facility in Glencoe, MN, United States. The facility will serve customers in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. The Glencoe plant features an annual capacity approaching 100,000 tonnes; more than 2,800 m² of warehouse space to provide products on demand; 21 separate bulk ingredient bins and 28 finished feed bins for fresh finished feed when needed.

The company also announced that it is investing to expand and modernise its pet food and specialty livestock feed operations in Effingham, IL. The company has purchased a 26,000 m² food-grade warehouse, which will be transformed into the plant, replacing ADM’s current 3 facilities in the city.

Lesaffre: new facility in Russia

Feed additives company Lesaffre is investing in a new facility dedicated to the production of Actisaf live yeast at Voronezh Drojjie production plant in Russia. The plant was already built in 1952 and has been an important yeast manufacturing plant in Russia. It was acquired by Lesaffre in the summer of 2011.

Voronezh Drojjie has been able to adapt and increase its global production capacity in line with the Russian market’s increasing demand. More than 1 billion roubles (€13.5 million) were invested in the modernisation and development of the plant. This new facility, which commenced production at the start of this year, is mainly dedicated to the production of live yeast for animal nutrition and health. The extension allows the plant to achieve annual production exceeding 20,000 tons of dry yeast, becoming the largest yeast manufacturer in Russia.

Nuscience finds new partners

Belgian animal nutrition company Nuscience is spreading its wings with new strategic partners in Canada, the United States and India.

Nuscience Group closed a strategic marketing agreement with Canadian Bio-Systems (CBS), of Calgary, AL. The agreement covers the distribution of Nuscience technology in Canada, utilising complementary resources of both companies to bring enhanced animal feed solutions to the Canadian marketplace.

For the US livestock industry, Nuscience found a strategic partner in PMI Nutritional Additives. The partnership is focused on identifying and developing leading feed technology products for the USA livestock industry.

In India, Nuscience Group made a strategic collaboration agreement with Jubilant Life Sciences. The deal concerns the distribution of Nuscience products in India, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Jubilant Life Sciences is an integrated global pharmaceutical and life sciences company.

De Heus opens Shanghai office

De Heus (Shanghai) Feed Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of De Heus Animal Nutrition, held a ceremonial opening for its Chinese export operation in the presence of 60 attendees from several vitamin & amino acid suppliers. The ceremony was held in June, at the Park Hyatt Shanghai hotel in Pudong. During the event, Ben Tacken, the company’s global director purchasing & trading, said that the opening demonstrates De Heus’ wishes to operate closer to micro-ingredient suppliers in the region in order to create a better collaboration and improve the supply chain to its various worldwide feed factories. The day-to-day activities of De Heus (Shanghai) will be in the hands of purchasing manager Lauran de Schutter.

De Heus acquires Dutch feed miller

Also on its home market in the Netherlands, De Heus has been active, as the company is acquiring Coops Mengvoeders. For Coops, it is a major step to develop its regional growth activities. For De Heus, Coops is a key partner for reinforcing its regional position in the east of the country.

Photo: De Heus

With a turnover of 115,000 tonnes, Coops Mengvoeders has a leading position in the east of the Netherlands. The business activities will be continued under the name Coops Mengvoeders; no people will be laid off. Coops will continue its autonomous management and will make use of the knowledge and experience of De Heus’ international expertise centre.

Nutreco goes South Africa

Netherlands-based animal nutrition company Nutreco is hoping to acquire Advit, a South African premix and feed additive company. Advit is headquartered in Johannesburg and produces a wide range of premixes, farm minerals and animal health products. Trouw Nutrition, Nutreco’s animal nutrition business, entered a strategic alliance with Advit in 2015. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2016.

Advit has a solid market position for all livestock species. It operates country-wide and also exports to neighbouring countries.

InVivo buys Philippine firm

InVivo NSA has acquired Popular Feedmill Corporation, a key player in the Philippine animal feed production. This acquisition materialises the company’s desire to develop its industrial presence and investments in South East Asia where it already holds strong positions in several countries: Vietnam, Indonesia, China, India, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand.

Popular Feedmill Corporation, built its first factory in 1995, currently employs about 500 people. The company has 2 production sites including a recently opened site in Bulacan near Manila and another in Cebu. The company produces approximately 150,000 tonnes of pig, poultry, aquaculture, and pet feed per year.

InVivo NSA becomes Neovia

InVivo NSA also recently adopted a new identity: Neovia. In a press release the company writes that “this new identity embodies the direction the company has taken since 2010: accelerated development, internationalisation, enhanced shareholding, and diversification of activities (additives, petcare, aquaculture).” It is aimed to highlight ingredients of the future like co-innovation, sustainable development and rational use of resources, feed quality and traceability, digitalisation and big data.

Photo: Neovia

With We’nov, the company’s new global innovation centre, Neovia hopes to accelerate the development and finalisation of innovative solutions and services in the animal nutrition and health sector. This centre will also foster the increase in collaborative projects.

Feed mill Paszmark to Agrifirm

Netherlands-based Royal Agrifirm Group has acquired the Polish compound feed company Paszmark. The Polish company is a family business focused on the poultry, pig and cattle sector, headquartered in Płosnica near Żuromin. Together with 3 other Polish sites, the acquisition allows Agrifirm to achieve full national coverage of the Polish market.

Paszmark was founded in 1995. The family business employs 29 workers who will continue to work for the company after its acquisition by Agrifirm. The company’s capacity is 50,000 tonnes of compound feed and it is located in an area with a high animal density.

Solvay, Orffa team up in Denmark

Solvay and its distributor partner Orffa expand their relationship to better serve the Bicar Z market in Denmark. The product is a sodium bicarbonate based solution produced by Solvay for livestock breeding. This source of essential nutrients for animal nutrition has a high buffering capacity that improves livestock yields.

The agreement, effective as from July 1, 2016, allows Solvay to increase the product’s  market penetration in Denmark by capitalising on Orffa’s technical and marketing competences in animal feed industry in this area.

Orffa is currently distributing the product in Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Germany.

New feedstuff factory in Denmark

The newly established company Frontagro.dk in Denmark has taken Denmark’s first factory in use, which is entirely focusing at the production of nutritional supplements and dietetic metabolic regulatory products for cattle and pigs.

Photo: Torben Worsøe

The production will include dietetic complementary supplements and ‘problem solvers’ for livestock as both dry feed, liquids and paste/gel products having purposes like the stabilisation of digestion in young animals using rehydration, acidification and fibre-electrolyte supplementation. In addition, the product range includes production and health enhancing supplements for animals in stress situations.

Pulte distributor for Animine

French trace mineral company Animine, has appointed Pulte & Co as its strategic marketing in Germany and Austria. Under this partnership, Pulte will work closely with Animine to develop the market and product positioning.

HiZox, a potentiated form of zinc oxide for piglet and poultry diets, is the first product to be launched in this area. The product is backed by scientific results from well-known research organisations. Pulte will benefit from Animine’s experience in similar countries with the same regulatory constraints and market maturity.

Evonik buys Norel probiotics line

German-based feed addditives company Evonik signed a purchase agreement on July 4, 2016, for acquisition of the probiotics business of the Spanish company Norel, a global supplier of animal feed ingredients. The agreement sees Evonik acquiring Norel’s probiotics product portfolio as well as the company’s site in León, Spain. The business will be integrated into Evonik’s Animal Nutrition business line. The parties have agreed not to disclose details of the transaction.

The probiotics business gives Evonik access to this product range and to more than 20 markets including the European market.

New plant for Evonik

More news on Evonik, as the company has also commissioned a new plant for the biotechnological production of the feed additive Biolys in the Brazilian town of Castro in the state Paraná. It will have annual production capacity of around 80,000 metric tonnes. Biolys is a source of the amino acid L-lysine.

Evonik produces Biolys on site of the US-based company Cargill, from which it procures site and logistics services as well as locally produced raw materials. Agricultural products from the region are used as the main raw material for the fermentation. The plant will create around 100 jobs for highly skilled workers.