IVORY COAST-Dutch animal nutrition specialist Koudijs Animal Nutrition, a subsidiary of Royal De Heus, has commissioned a 120,000 tons capacity poultry feed manufacturing unit in the Akoupé-Zeudji PK24 industrial zone located northwest of Abidjan, Ivory Cost.
De Heus Animal Nutrition, a family-owned company, is a global top-12 feed supplier with over 8 000 employees, represented in more than 75 countries. The company started the construction of the facility in 2019 as it sought to expand its presence in Africa.
The unit, worth 11 billion CFA (US$18M) with a production capacity of 120,000 tons of food per year was strategically built with the potential to increase to 250,000 tons in future.
With this initiative, Koudijs Animal Nutrition intends to strengthen its presence at the upstream level of the poultry value chain in Côte d’Ivoire, where it set a base in 2009. This facility is one of the largest on the continent and is expected to create 2,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Souleymane Diarrassouba, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Promotion of SMEs, and Sidi Touré, Minister of Animal and Fisheries Resources held the inauguration ceremony to show support to the sector.
The minister said that part of the company’s operations aims to source several raw materials locally such as cassava, palm oil, corn, rice and soybean, and palm kernel cake as a way to boost the economic welfare of locals as well as contribute to the country’s GDP.
“ This initiative fits perfectly with the policy of processing local agricultural raw materials and import substitution advocated by the government, which has adopted a reform aimed at accelerating the development of the production and processing of agricultural food products ”, said Souleymane Diarrasouba.
Meanwhile, the poultry sector in the country is one of the most protected against international competition to meet the local consumption of 3kg per capita. This follows the introduction of a tax on poultry imports in 2009.
However, the commissioning came at a time when the Ivorian executive is implementing the second part of the Strategic Poultry Recovery Plan (PSRAII) over the period 2022-2031.
The initiative aims to eventually achieve a poultry meat supply of 200,000 tonnes compared to 56,000 tonnes in 2018 and to achieve a production of eggs for consumption of 3.37 billion units compared to 1.65 billion units currently.
In 2019, the company launched a hatchery with a production capacity of 6 million chicks per year, built at a cost of CFA francs 2 billion (US$3.59m)
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