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| Tilapia Farm in Lake Kariba, Zambia © Yalelo Limited |
African focus
During recent years Aller Aqua has increased its focus on the African continent significantly by establishing local production and several additional sales companies.
However, the company has been delivering extruded fish feed to Africa for more than a decade. African aquaculture is constantly growing and thus the need for product optimisation is increased throughout the value chain. Addressing the main challenges in the individual markets is fundamental in the company’s strategy and business structure in Africa.
The main challenges are reliable availability, economic feed conversion rate, high and consistent quality, training and local presence. In January 2016, in light of the increased activity in the African countries, Aller Aqua appointed Niels Lundgaard Commercial Director of Africa. Niels focuses on expanding the business in the Sub-Saharan countries, and has during recent years helped Aller Aqua Group start sales companies in both Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya to mention a few.
The group’s structure with subsidiaries in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana forms a strong base for customer service in the region. A distributor is in place in Rwanda, and Aller Aqua agents are in place in Benin, Cameroon, Senegal and Tanzania. Besides this, there is direct export from Aller Aqua’s German factory, Emsland-Aller Aqua, to Uganda and Madagascar.
In the north of Africa, the company’s Egyptian factory, Aller Aqua Egypt, has just expanded to include its third production line. Further Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria is supplied via both the group’s Danish and German factories. To complete the setup Aller Aqua is currently building a factory in Zambia. The factory build will make Aller Aqua market leader of modern and environmentally friendly extruded fish feed for aquaculture in Africa.
In Zambia Aller Aqua Group has partnered with Yalelo Limited as a key client. Yalelo has grown quickly to become one of the world’s leading tilapia aquaculture companies. Alongside the construction of Aller Aqua’s Zambian fish feed factory, Yalelo has commenced an expansion project to increase production to 20,000- 30,000 tonnes of Tilapia within the next few years, securing Aller Aqua Groups commercial security in the country from offset.
The fish feed factory gives Aller Aqua a great basis for expansion in Zambia, a country which aims to be self- sufficient with farmed fish – but also the ability to export to neighboring countries such as Angola, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, Tanzania, South Africa and Congo.
Aller Aqua’s research and development department, located in Germany, has formulated the feeds sold in Africa specifically for the region, considering the species and the nutritional and physical quality for the environment the fish are farmed in. Both Tilapia and Catfish grow fast, and a high-performance feed enables faster and more economically efficient growth, resulting in improved income to the farmer at harvest.
Aller Aqua signed as gold sponsor for World Aquaculture 2017 in Cape Town
As a company focused on its customers, and one that is expanding in Africa, it was natural for Aller Aqua to support World Aquaculture the first time it takes place in Africa. To gain the widest possible reach and welcome as many customers as possible, the company welcomed the opportunity of being gold sponsors of the event.
The growth in both aquaculture and population seen in Africa in recent years does not seem to stagnate.
Hans Erik Bylling, CEO and owner of Aller Aqua explained, “We have a solid set-up in Europe, whereas we in Sub-Saharan Africa see that we have big impact now. We focus our efforts where there is a need for high quality feed. The rising incomes and developing economies in countries like Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana support this potential. Based on demand we have opened subsidiaries in all three countries. This, combined with our production operations in Egypt and Zambia, made it an obvious choice to support the World Aquaculture 2017 event."
Team Aller Aqua at World Aquaculture 2017
Aller Aqua is manning the booths at the event with representatives from Africa as well as the company’s Danish headquarters. Visit them at booths 1+2 all days of the conference to learn about the company strategy for Africa, and how they grow together with their customers.
Niels Lundgaard, Commercial Director of Africa
“In Africa we have highly skilled teams in place, and we enter the markets with our usual approach; We want to grow with the customers and help them increase the output on their fish farms. We do this by providing extruded fish feed, advice and training. We further hold seminars and participate in local events and exhibitions.”
Lasisi Nurudeen, MD/Country Manager, Nigeria
“Many fish farms have gone down the drain due to lack of technical knowledge and poor cost management. Aller Aqua, with dedicated teams across Africa, have been supporting farmers to improve the dynamics of fish farming. We believe that when the farmers have a profitable harvest, we, the feed miller will have continuous patronage. Meet me at our stand to share our success story in Nigeria.”
Dr Hanno Slawski, Group R&D Director
“Due to the fast-growth of catfish and Tilapia, it can generally quickly be demonstrated, that high-performance feed of stable quality enables faster fish growth and gives fish ready for the market earlier than commonly observed. The feeds now gaining popularity in African markets could also be used for indoor RAS farming. Such a quality level would not be everyone’s first thought when considering the ideal product for the two species. However, given the popularity of this fish and its local price, farmers are adapting to better feed to keep this a constant in an otherwise often challenging environment.“
Leon Günter, CEO, Aller Aqua Zambia
“The Aller Aqua Zambian factory is an industry-shifting investment in the Southern African aquaculture value-chain. This local aquafeed manufacturing capability will make international quality products available to the SADAC market with a delivery-time and customer support that has not been available until now. A core strategy of our market-entry in Southern Africa is to replicate our hands-on training courses for smaller farms, which have proven very popular in Egypt and East Africa.
A US$10 million investment in the latest aquafeed technology will enable us to produce a product range unmatched in the region in terms of performance and environmental friendliness. As the largest aqua feed factory in Sub-Saharan Africa, this is a clear signal that Aller Aqua intends to support the continent’s vision for aquaculture for many years to come.
We look forward to welcoming our first customers in August!”
Visit the Aller Aqua website here.
This blog is maintained by The Aquaculturists staff and is supported by the
magazine International Aquafeed which is published by Perendale Publishers Ltd
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