Skretting has been selling feed in Nigeria for many years, firstly working with Durante, then setting up Skretting Nigeria to import good quality fish feed from Europe. Two years ago, Durante shareholders approached Skretting to see if they could work together locally to produce fish feed, which resulted in the building of a 10,000 metric ton (MT) feed plant.

According to Rob Kiers, Managing Director, Nutreco Africa and Skretting Nigeria, 10,000 MT is small compared to the size of the market and there is enormous potential to expand because Nigerians love to eat catfish, which is part of their culture.

Fish farming has grown in recent years, but there’s still a lot of improvement to be made, along with improvements to the feed.

“This plant is the first step but we’re anticipating making further investments here by way of extending it or maybe build more plants,” he said.

“Our goal is to increase to around 50,000 MT in the near future and we believe the Nigerian market can easily absorb this amount of feed.

Skretting also has a plant in Egypt, which Kiers oversees, where the company produces 100,000MT of fish feed per year. In addition, investment is being made in Zambia; and there are offices in Kenya and South Africa. Together they employ around 350 people.

Sixty percent of the raw materials such as soya and by-products of cassava are sourced locally in Nigeria, but high quality protein the only feed element imported.

Source: Gboyega Alaka The Nation. Read the full article here.