February 1, 2016

Dutch animal nutrition and aquaculture feed company, Nutreco, announced it has entered into a 75/25 joint venture with African Century Foods (ACF) to create the new aquaculture feed company, Skretting Zambia.

In order to reduce the country’s dependence on imported fish, Zambia’s aquaculture industry has been growing at a rapid pace, however, the lack of available feed is causing a bottleneck. To address this gap in the supply chain, Skretting Zambia will build and operate Zambia’s first dedicated fish feed facility. The plant, which will be located in Siavonga, in close proximity to the key fish farming areas of Zambia and Zimbabwe, will have an initial production capacity of 25,000 tons – the bulk of which will be allocated to supplying the farms of joint venture partner, ACF, the largest fish producer in Africa with farms in Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Uganda. In the second phase of construction, the plant is scheduled to be expanded to allow for production to supply fish feed to the wider South-East African region.

This joint venture follows on fish feed investments made by Nutreco in Egypt and Nigeria, and Harm de Wildt, Managing Director Nutreco, EMEA, states in a company statement, “The production of high quality, extruded fish feed will further support the development of aquaculture in this region. It will help our customers to increase efficiency and profitability, and as a result will also mitigate the environmental footprint of the sector. In ACF we have found the right partner to establish a strong foothold in the South-East African market.”

ACF is the largest aquaculture group in Africa, and is part of the operating investment company, Africa Century Group. Its fish farms across Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Uganda includes their own hatcheries, cage-based production systems, processing and value addition capabilities, cold storage, and wholesale and retail distribution.

Nutreco has employees in over 35 countries, and saw net sales of €5.3 billion in 2014. Its aquaculture feed brand, Skretting, and its animal nutrition brand, Trouw Nutrition, have sales in over 90 countries.