Like this time last year, we dust down the crystal ball and gaze into it to determine what 2016 holds in terms of the fortunes of the global feed industry. A selection of industry insiders give us their forecasts.
Nutreco’s aqua feed division, Skretting, is teaming up with local experts to expand tilapia production in Egypt as it also hikes its fish feed capacity in that country.
We ran a reader survey earlier this year to find out what the major headaches are for the feed sector - a majority of respondents reported the Russian sanctions as detrimental for business.
ForFarmers says it is looking to grab the number one spot as supplier of piglet feed to sow farmers in North West Europe with a new range it has developed with Trouw Nutrition.
Nutreco has flagged up its plan to double its investment in R&D and innovation in both animal and fish feed as it rebrands its livestock nutrition activities.
Big data has become a buzzword in the agribusiness industry but it should not be forgotten that data does not always equal ‘information’, said Nutreco.
Nutreco has extended its feed sales contract with Marine Harvest and has managed to reduce its exposure to the loss of business from Mercadona in Spain, said CEO Knut Nesse.
GM plant oils would seem to represent the ‘holy grail’ in the hunt for viable replacements for fish oil derived long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in aqua feed.
Nutreco says that SHV has received regulatory clearance from the competition authorities of China in connection with its offer for the Dutch feed group.
The fish feed segment of Dutch group, Nutreco, proved resilient in the second half of the year despite Marine Harvest’s own feed plant coming on stream, concludes a leading equity analyst.
As 2014 draws to a close, we seek out the opinion of manufacturers, suppliers and US and EU trade representatives to determine how next year might play out for the global feed sector.
An analyst reckons US agri-giant Cargill will make a concrete offer for Nutreco soon even though such a counter bid must come in at least 8% higher than the €44.50 per share offer from SHV, a stipulation that private firm secured when finalizing its bid...
Dutch investment company, SHV, has published its offer memorandum for Nutreco, revealing that its €44.50 per share offer begins Monday next and ends on 17 February 2015.
Nutreco’s acquisition of two Brazilian premix and feed specialties firms makes sense, and will extend its footprint in one of the fastest growing animal nutrition markets, says an analyst.
Nutreco says the offer process from SHV is “on track” with the investment firm saying it will publish its offer memorandum on its intended acquisition of all the animal nutrition company’s shares at the start of next month.
This week has seen shareholders in Nutreco such as Dutch pension group, APG, call on the Dutch fish and animal feed manufacturer to open its books to Cargill and Permira, the potential contenders to a €3 billion ($3.7bn) acquisition bid by SHV Holdings.
The feed industry and livestock producers are recognising the importance of feeding their animals an optimum nutrient supply in the first few weeks of life in order to get productivity gains throughout that animal’s lifetime.
A bidding war is underway for Nutreco after SHV raised its offer to €44.50 ($54.87) a share in response to acquisition interest shown from Cargill, which is keen to take on the Dutch group’s fish feed division.
Metabolic studies will feature large in Nutreco’s new dairy calf nutrition research program, LifeStart, as a way of exploring what impact a higher plane of nutrition at the perinatal stage has on an animal’s lifetime performance.
Analysts say firms such as Cargill and DSM could still trump SHV's offer
Animal and fish feed group, Nutreco, said it fully endorses the bid from privately-held Dutch investment firm, SHV, to acquire it for €40 ($51) per share, or €2.69 billion ($3.43bn), and it dismissed speculation about third party bids for the business.
Leveraging functional ingredient R&D will help counterbalance lower volume growth in the salmon farming sector for feed makers over the next two years, estimates an industry analyst.
Fish feed, on the back of recent investment, is boosting profits at Nutreco, with the Dutch group posting a 2.6% hike in turnover to €2,460 million ($3,306m) in the first six months of 2014.
Dairy farmers need greater insight into how to optimize calf diets, says Nutreco as it invests just over €1m ($1.3m) in a new dairy calf and beef cattle nutrition research facility in the Netherlands.
Nutreco’s fish feed division, Skretting, is ploughing a significant amount of its research funds into the development of alternative proteins to fishmeal for the aquaculture sector.
An analyst questions Nutreco’s move to set up a joint venture in fish feed in Nigeria, saying the Dutch feed group should remain focused on the massive growth potential of the Asian and Latin American aquaculture markets instead.
As Nutreco announces it is to hold onto its Iberian business for the foreseeable future, a Dutch broker says management at the feed company has been ‘clumsy’ in the execution of the divestment process.
The Dutch feed company, in its trading update for the first quarter of 2014, said revenue for the period, at €853.3 million, was up 8.4% on the same quarter last year.
The new Norwegian feed plant from farmed salmon giant, Marine Harvest, is set to be operational by July with the company ambitious to set up feed sites in other fish farming markets.
A global feed maker on the hunt for a strategic buy could snap up Nutreco’s compound feed and meat businesses in Spain and Portugal, claims an analyst.
![De Heus says Nuter's feed production sites are strategically located to the biggest livestock farming areas [pic: (c) istock.com]](/var/wrbm_gb_food_pharma/storage/images/_aliases/news_teaser_medium/5/7/1/6/1346175-1-eng-GB/De-Heus-buys-Iberian-compound-feed-producer.jpg)
![Egyptian aquaculture sector expected to grow from 1.3m tons in 2014 to 2m tons in 2020 [pic: (c) istock.com]](/var/wrbm_gb_food_pharma/storage/images/_aliases/news_teaser_medium/3/0/7/9/759703-1-eng-GB/Skretting-invests-as-Egyptian-aquaculture-sector-forecast-to-nearly-double-by-2020.jpg)
