Representatives from the global farming and animal feed industries visited Ireland last week to witness first-hand the research and development being carried out by leading agri tech company Devenish.
Belfast headquartered Devenish develops sustainable, innovative animal nutrition products and solutions for the feed industry, the food industry and for human health, employing over 450 people worldwide and trading in over 40 countries.
Over 50 of its international distributors and contacts attended the four-day Devenish Experience 2018 Global Distributor Conference, during which time they visited the Devenish Lands at Dowth, County Meath, to learn about its research and development into sustainable agriculture, which fuels the science behind its products.
Guests then visited Devenish’s performance house facilities in Northern Ireland, where it carries out high level research into pig and poultry production.
The event comes shortly after Devenish CEO Richard Kennedy joined UK Prime Minister Theresa May on her first official visit to Africa, where he, alongside 28 other business leaders, met with businesses, policy makers and entrepreneurs to build new investment, trading and export connections.
“We are extremely privileged to welcome our international distributors to Ireland to showcase the work we carry out at the heart of Devenish’s operations,” said Ian Atterbury, Director of International Business, Devenish.
“Devenish has ambitious growth plans in place both on a domestic and international scale. It is hugely valuable to bring our partners from across the globe to learn about our ‘One Health – from Soil to Society’ research, development and innovation program, in order to ultimately help us grow together.
“Our vision is to become a world leader of integrated animal, human and environmental health solutions and are committed to nurturing effective relationships throughout the global supply chain,” Ian said.
Devenish recently secured €118 million in long-term funding to enable its research, development and growth plans, representing the largest ever support for agri-business in Ireland by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and significant commitments from Ulster Bank and Danske Bank.
Since its acquisition of Dowth in 2013, The Devenish Lands at Dowth is an internationally-recognized research farm dedicated to sustainable agriculture and promoting human health through nutrition. It has also been named a designated “Lighthouse Farm,” showing the way to a sustainable future for farming, by top agriculture university Wageningen in the Netherlands – and has been successful in winning research funding to examine the optimization of soil, meat quality, human health and environmental health.