Perstorp Group has announced that it will invest more than €14 million in feed & food. Its investment will include establishing satellite production units in Asia and the Americas to be closer to these markets and customers; significantly increasing manpower resources in R&D, regulatory affairs, supply chain, operations, marketing and sales; and expanding the plant in the Netherlands.

The facility is scheduled to begin operating in the last quarter of 2019. The partnership with Tereos will locally process the starch facility's co-products as basic feed for breeding insects.

White Dog Labs announced that independent testing by the Center for Aquaculture Technologies in Canada (CATC) has demonstrated the potential benefit of ProTyton, a single-cell protein (SCP), to shrimp farming. Initial studies demonstrated that inclusion of ProTyton into a CATC reference diet reduces mortality of whiteleg shrimp compared to a commercial diet when challenged by Vibrio parahaemolyticus. “It is exciting to observe in this preliminary work that ProTyton addition to the CATC diet results in equal or better performance than the commercial diet for mortality. Moreover, three of the four ProTyton diets performed better than the commercial diet, and in two cases reduced mortality to 1/3rd that of the commercial diet. Further work is now planned to reconfirm and scale up ProTyton analysis, particularly in a model that is similar to field outbreaks.”

Nutriad has announced the appointment of Mr. Goud Dhanunjaya as Regional Sales Manager Aquaculture for the Indian sub-continent (ISC). The move is part of the continuous strategic expansion of Nutriad into the rapidly developing aquaculture market, aiming to have experienced local staff in key markets.

The organizing committee of VIETSTOCK 2018 Expo & Forum announced that Biomin has won the 9th VIETSTOCK Vietnam Feed & Livestock Industry Award for the Best Premix Feed Producer category. "This recognition from the industry as Vietnam’s best premix feed producer shows that Biomin has attained full qualifications in being a provider of exemplary products. Livestock is a major growth contributor to the Vietnamese economy, and both ERBER Group and Biomin are honored to have had made a positive contribution to the industry.”

Alltech is advising industry stakeholders that recent severe weather across the U.S. is resulting in a high risk for mycotoxins. Harvest samples from across the U.S. are currently being submitted to the Alltech 37+® mycotoxin analytical services laboratory, and the analysis is showing high levels of mycotoxins, as in past years, of DON, fusaric acid and fumonisin, as well as HT-2 this year. “The extreme weather events that we’ve seen across the U.S. this year present different challenges, different types of molds and different types of mycotoxins. And we monitor those risks with our harvest analysis through the Alltech 37+® mycotoxin tests to evaluate risk to livestock health and performance.”  

Benchmark announced that it has agreed to acquire Videntis, a provider of data technology to aquaculture and agriculture producers. Videntis' technology enables producers to have real-time data and feedback on feed efficiency, welfare and product quality. "Videntis' IP and expertise support our strategy of combining biology and technology to benefit our customers. Data technology is an increasingly important tool to maximize yield and to manage biological challenges. Combined with Benchmark's products it allows us to offer an integrated solution to our clients."

Biomin hosted 800 delegates from 76 countries at its World Nutrition Forum in Cape Town, South Africa, where over 40 expert speakers from industry and academia from across the globe explored the latest market trends and scientific developments relating to food-producing animals. The theme of the scientific conference was S.C.O.P.E. or “Scientific Challenges and Opportunities in the Protein Economy.”

Wilbur-Ellis Feed, LLC has announced the acquisition of the assets of Ameri-Pac Inc. “Ameri-Pac is a strategic fit for Wilbur-Ellis that bolsters our offerings of value-added ingredients, excellent service and innovative solutions that maximize returns for our customers and suppliers. And, we’re not only eager to add two premier antioxidant products created and produced by Ameri-Pac, Oxygon and Oxyblock, to our portfolio, but its talented employees to our team as well.”

According to Biomin, many of the factors influencing the feed and livestock industry can be understood as a ‘mega-trend’ of sustainability. This was a hot topic at the 2018 World Nutrition Forum, where Biomin executives discussed how the company employs sustainable practices throughout its value chain. During the Forum, which took place in South Africa, Biomin also expressed its commitment to supporting sustainable livestock production in Africa.

This week, a record number of 28 dryer customers from around the world participated in Geelen Counterflow’s Dryer & Cooler Training 2018. During the three day training, participants learned about the thermodynamics of drying and cooling, relative humidity, dew point temperatures, wet bulb temperatures, mollier diagrams, enthalpy, sorption isotherms, diffusion coefficients, radiation, convection and more.

The Pearse Lyons Accelerator is now seeking applications for a new cohort of world-class international ag-tech startups to participate in its global mentoring program. The Accelerator, a late-stage, non-equity program, offers startups access to a network of executives who have, collectively, more than 100 years of leadership experience and domain expertise in agriculture. Participants also receive a €15,000 stipend to cover day-to-day expenses, as well as software perks worth over €300,000 from companies such as Google, Facebook, Softlayer and Amazon.

Perstorp has appointed Jim Ren as Vice President of the Asia Pacific Region, responsible for the company’s Feed & Food Business Area. Ren has over 10 years’ experience working in China and five years in South East Asia, and was most recently with Evonik for several years. Ren will be responsible for achieving Perstorp’s ambitious strategic goals for Feed & Food in the Asia Pacific region. This will involve him leading, training and developing Perstorp Feed & Food’s regional sales and technical team and its distributors and agents.

Nutriad has set forth plans to increase its market share in China. In addition to recently upgrading its local production facilities and investing in people, product development and quality systems, the company participated at VIV China in Nanjing to interact with customers, distributors and key opinion leaders. “Not only because of the size of the market, but also because of the challenges Chinese producers face, we are confident that we can accelerate our growth in China with the practical solutions we offer and the local technical support available through our direct interaction with customers as well as via our extensive distributor network.”

The rapid advancement of gene sequencing technologies have recently made it possible to investigate a number of related questions regarding antibiotics, such as the prevalence and transmission of antibiotic resistance, as well as the mode of action of antibiotics and feed additives. At the upcoming 2018 World Nutrition Forum, experts from Biomin will delve into details on the application of –omics technologies and the understanding of antibiotic resistance. “A holistic, 360-degree approach to antibiotic reduction based on prevention involves looking at the entire set of factors that can contribute to animal health and performance, including management, nutrition, biosecurity, hygiene and health.”

Bühler has launched Insights™, one of the first cloud-based frameworks for digital services in the food and feed processing industry. The Bühler Insights platform combines the power of Bühler’s leadership in food processing with Microsoft’s leadership in delivering intelligent Azure cloud technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities, and blockchain to unlock a new degree of food safety, traceability, transparency, and data intelligence.

Bühler Aeroglide has appointed Tom Barber, vice president of capital sales, and Jason Pintuff, director of process engineering. “These appointments will strengthen our global strategy for long-term growth. Tom has a deep understanding of our business as it grows in scope and complexity, and Jason is well suited to direct process engineering so that our customers can operate successful food, feed and industrial processes.”

Biomin recently introduced Spectrum Top 50, a new mycotoxin detection service for customers globally.  The service allows for the identification of more than 50 different mycotoxins and metabolites in finished feed and raw materials. Spectrum Top 50 relies upon liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) technology. “With Spectrum Top 50, customers will have access to a powerful new method to uncover previously undetected masked and emerging mycotoxins lurking in their feed in addition to the regulated ones." 

KnipBio Inc. announced the successful completion of a feed efficacy trial on Atlantic salmon using KBM500, the company’s astaxanthin-rich premium protein. The feed trials showed no significant difference in feed conversion ratio or weight gain for Atlantic salmon fed diets containing 5%, 10%, and 15% KBM500 when compared to fish fed a standard diet. “We have now completed successful efficacy trials with three different protein products: KBM203, which is rich in prebiotic compounds, our high-protein KBM324 ingredient, and now KBM500. The tests demonstrated KBM-based aquafeed diets offer equal or better performance than fishmeal. We view this is strong evidence that KBM is highly suitable as a protein replacement for soy or fishmeal in an aquafeed, while at the same time providing additional functional feed benefits."

Unibio and its partner and licensee Protelux are about to begin operations at their methane-to-protein plant. In July, Protelux completed the construction of the plant, located in Russia, and the parties are currently testing the plant and expect to commission it by late 2018. “We see this not just as a perspective investment into cutting-edge technology but as part of a bigger picture: a highly profitable industry of the local agricultural sector built from the ground up."