Nutreco’s recent announcement that it would invest EUR15 million (US$16.9 million) in greater production capacity of premixes, farm minerals and young animal feed in Asia will enable its animal nutrition business Trouw Nutrition to further strengthen its position in the region.
Nutreco announced last week that it would open a new plant in Indonesia and upgrade a plant in China. The animal nutrition company also opened a premix plant in Vietnam this year.
“Nutreco invests for the long term, and we believe in the future growth potential of the Asian feed market. This investment illustrates our commitment to be a leading player in this region,” Mark Woldberg, manager of corporate communications at Nutreco, told WATT Global Media in an email.
“The demographic and economic center of gravity has been shifting towards Asia in recent years and this will continue,” he said.
The new premix plant in East Java, Indonesia, is Nutreco’s second premix plant in Indonesia and its fifth in Asia. The plant in Hunan was originally constructed in 1999 and was designed primarily to produce compound feed. It has been upgraded to a premix, farm minerals and young animal feed plant to meet the growing demand for high-quality, sustainable animal nutrition products in Central and Southern China.
“Our existing premix facilities in China were running at full capacity and we needed additional capacity to meet demand,” Woldberg said. “This shift away from compound feed to nutritional solutions is in line with Nutreco’s overall strategy to add more value for our customers. The upgrade will enable Nutreco to bring new products and technologies to the Chinese market, such as young animal feed.”
Woldberg said Nutreco is dedicated to its customers and stakeholders in Asia, and its investment in the region shows that.
“The Asian animal nutrition market has grown spectacularly in the past decade. Despite the current slowdown, we will continue to see healthy single-digit growth rates, certainly if compared to the more mature markets in the U.S. and Europe.”
