March 30, 2016
Aller Aqua strengthens African foothold
Danish Aller Aqua Group will be building a new fish feed factory in Zambia, as part of its growth strategy in Africa.
This development comes after the company inaugurated its fish feed factory in Egypt last year: http://www.cnchemicals.com/
Aller Aqua has partnered with Yalelo Limited, which has grown quickly to become one of the world''s leading tilapia aquaculture firms. 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.
The new company and factory will be called Aller Aqua Zambia, and will be the largest and most modern of its kind in Africa. It will have a capacity of 50,000 tonnes of feed per year, and the investment is approximately US$10 million, says Henrik Halken, group vice president, who is responsible for the company''s activities on the African continent.
Zambia aims to be self-sufficient in farmed fish, and also being able to export to neighbouring countries such as Angola, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, Tanzania and Congo.
"The factory will be situated near the town Siavonga, on the shore of Lake Kariba, and is expected to be ready mid-2017, provided that the final commitments and permits are given from various authorities and institutions as expected," says Henrik Halken.
Aquaculture is expected to play a significant role in African food security, and lakes such as Kariba, Victoria and Volta offer high potential.
"We have experienced significant growth in Egypt in 2015 and created two new sales subsidiaries in both Kenya and Nigeria, both of which contribute positively to the company''s growth. The feed for these two markets comes from our European factories and contribute positively here. In Zambia and the region we plan to replicate our experience of supporting smallholder fish farmers through training in the use of more efficient commercial fish feeds.
With the new factory in Zambia Aller Aqua Group will consolidate its position as the largest producer of environmentally friendly extruded fish feed in Africa," sums up Henrik Halken.
Hans-Erik Bylling, majority shareholder and CEO in Aller Aqua Group, adds, "We recently launched a new growth strategy in Aller Aqua, which should form the basis of further growth in the coming years- investments in new factories in growing markets are a big part of this strategy.
Therefore we have started excavation works for a new factory in Qingdao, China, which should be ready late 2016."