Nutreco announced that subject to the necessary regulatory approvals it has formed two joint ventures with the Kenya-based, largest feed miller in East Africa, Unga Group Plc, to meet the growing demand for high-quality protein within the East African region.
This partnership involves open-ended, Nutreco-managed joint ventures with two indirect subsidiaries of Unga Group: Unga Farm Care (EA) Limited in Kenya and Unga Millers (U) Limited in Uganda. The announcement underpins Nutreco’s commitment to its purpose of Feeding the Future and will enlarge the footprints of its divisions Trouw Nutrition and Skretting in East Africa.
The yet-to-be-named joint ventures will focus on fish feed development in East Africa and complete animal feed development in Uganda. 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.
Expanding into growth markets
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.
Nutreco CEO, Rob Koremans, said, “I am thrilled to partner with Unga Farm Care and Unga Millers, companies that, like Nutreco, have extensive knowledge within animal nutrition and aquaculture industries. Together, Nutreco and Unga Group will tap into each other’s extensive expertise to continue meeting the growing demand for high-quality protein.”
Hundreds of years of experience and a long-standing relationship
Unga has over 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.
Unga CEO, Nick Hutchinson, said that “Nutreco and Unga have worked together as customer and supplier for many years and we are trusted partners with one another. 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.”
