Olam International Limited has announced that its grains platform plans to expand into animal feed and related businesses in Nigeria. The expansion involves investments in setting up poultry and fish feed mills.

The global animal feed industry has attractive returns and a strong growth outlook, particularly in emerging markets. Olan has chosen Nigeria, as the country’s increasing urbanisation and a change in consumer preference towards more protein-rich diets is driving a strong demand for poultry and aquaculture products and the commercial feed market is expected to grow at over 10% CAGR over the next 5 years.

The investment builds on Olam’s existing strengths in origination, and its expertise and execution capabilities in Nigeria, where it has been successful in executing cost-competitive projects, and operating them at world class efficiency levels. For example, Olam has a profitable and growing wheat milling business.

In addition to bran from its flour mills, Olam will leverage its local procurement network to source a majority of other inputs required for producing poultry and fish feed. This will reduce import dependence, benefit local farming communities and generate youth employment, which are key priorities for the Nigerian economy today.

The investments will also contribute to the development of the Nigerian poultry and aquaculture sectors by providing competitively priced inputs and technical support to local poultry and fish farmers, thereby improving productivity and returns for the sector.