Photo: Adobe stock AMERSFOORT, NETHERLANDS — Nutreco and Kenya-based Unga Group LLC agreed to form two joint ventures to focus on fish feed development in East Africa and complete animal feed development in Uganda.
The joint ventures with Unga Farm Care Ltd. in Kenya and Unga Millers in Uganda will enlarge the footprints of Nutreco’s Trouw Nutrition and Skretting in East Africa.
The entities will make significant investments in production capacity in both Kenya and Uganda to meet the anticipated future market demand.
The Kenyan entity will produce fish feeds intended for East African markets at Unga’s existing extruded fish feed plant in Nairobi and market them under the Skretting & Fugo brands.
The Ugandan entity will benefit from the transfer of Unga’s existing flour production facility in Kampala, to host a state-of-the-art mill producing complete animal feed and concentrates sold under a range of Trouw Nutrition & Unga brands.
The growing population in East Africa is expected to double from 170 million people to approximately 340 million people by 2050. With the increase in population, the demand for high-quality protein from the aquaculture and agriculture sectors will rise accordingly.
“I am thrilled to partner with Unga Farm Care and Unga Millers, companies that, like Nutreco, have extensive knowledge within the animal nutrition and aquaculture industries,” said Rob Koremans, chief executive officer of Nutreco. “Together, Nutreco and Unga Group will tap into each other’s extensive expertise to continue meeting the growing demand for high quality protein.”
Unga has more than 100 years of grain-processing experience in East Africa and, as one of Kenya’s oldest companies, has become the largest animal feed miller in East Africa. Since its inception in 1909, Unga has grown from a wheat grain miller to manufacture and market a broad range of human nutrition, animal nutrition, and animal health products in East African countries. Unga has been a business partner of Nutreco’s divisions, Trouw Nutrition and Skretting for more than 25 years.
“Nutreco and Unga have worked together as customer and supplier for many years and we are trusted partners to one another,” said Nick Hutchinson, CEO of Unga. “We are therefore thrilled to bring our partnership to the next level. Together, we will advance our offerings to our customers as we aim to supply high-quality feed supported by world class technical know-how to our aquaculture and agriculture livestock customers.”