Trouw Nutrition, Nutreco’s animal nutrition division, had already entered a strategic alliance with Advit last year.
The Netherlands headquartered group said the acquisition will work as “a stepping stone” for further expansion in southern Africa.
The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the second half of 2016.
Nutreco said Advit, which is located in Johannesburg, has a strong position and reputation in the market; it produces premixes, farm minerals and animal health products for all livestock species, with sales in both its home market and in neighboring countries such as Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Swaziland, Rwanda, Mozambique, Malawi, DRC and Botswana.
A spokesperson for the Dutch feed giant told us Advit will be a platform to sell Trouw Nutrition products: "We expect that increased technical support will boost premix and farm mineral sales in South-Africa and surrounding countries."
Aquaculture feed joint ventures
South Africa is arguably the largest and most advanced animal nutrition market in Africa, but Nutreco has a foothold in other markets on that continent as well.
Nutreco entered Africa in 2001 by acquiring a share of the Egyptian company Hendrix Misr, which came under full ownership in 2013 and was renamed Skretting Egypt. The past few years has seen the company invest in joint ventures in tilapia feed production in both Egypt and Zambia, and it has ploughed funds into a catfish feed manufacturing partnership in Nigeria.
Earlier this year, Rob Kiers, managing director, Nutreco Africa, told FeedNavigator that, despite the evident challenges, the continent was firmly on the company’s investment radar in terms of aquaculture opportunities given the exploding population demographics, access to waters and local feed raw materials.
Poultry and dairy sector watch
Together with its fisheries agenda, he said Nutreco was also keen to explore opportunities in the poultry and dairy sectors of East and South Africa.
The Dutch group currently produces around 15,000 Mt of poultry concentrates in its Egyptian facility and a limited quantity of those poultry orientated inputs at the Nigerian plant. It also exports feed to 35 countries in Africa.
Nutreco undertook a study of the Ghana poultry sector back in 2013 with a view to investment but determined, at that stage, Nigeria’s aquaculture set up offered the greater potential. But the company continues to keep an eye on markets like Ghana, said Kiers.
“There is a fantastic entrepreneurial spirit in Africa and we want to support that,” he added then,
And population growth projections for the continent would seem to support investment in Africa.
More than half of the projected global population growth in the coming decades will take place in Africa, according to data from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The continent will have added 1.3bn people by 2050, roughly equivalent to the current population of China.