Universal, which has total annual sales volume of 300,000 tons of poultry, fish and shrimp feed, is a private Indonesian feed company held by a consortium of several private shareholders. The deal gives De Heus access to the Indonesian animal feed market. It expects to close the deal in Q4 2018.
De Heus has long been looking to strengthen its position in the animal feed sector in Asia.
In 2009, it entered the Southeast Asian market through the acquisition of a feed company in Vietnam. It now has eight factories strategically spread throughout that country, and the De Heus regional Asian head office is located in Vietnam as well.
In terms of its other Asian activities, the Dutch group operates two feed mills in Myanmar and it is currently constructing a feed mill in Cambodia.
With a population of 260 million people, Indonesia is the largest protein consumption market in Southeast Asia and the demand for animal proteins in Indonesia will continue to grow due to rising incomes, population growth and changes in dietary preferences. De Heus expects that the size of the feed market there will further expand from 19m tons to 22 million tons by 2022.
The poultry industry consumes around 83% of Indonesia’s animal feed. Aquaculture consumes 11%, while the remaining 6% is used in the cattle and swine segments, as per US Department of Agriculture (USDA) data.
Recent moves by foreign players in Indonesia
Cargill recently announced the opening of a technology application center dedicated to aquaculture located in Ciseeng, Parung-Bogor, which is a hub for freshwater aquaculture in Indonesia.
The agribusiness giant said the facility is focused on working with freshwater fish producers in an attempt to improve feed standards and farming methods.
Jesper Clausen, regional technology application lead in Southeast Asia with Cargill aqua nutrition, told FeedNavigator in August: “Our main focus will initially be on further improving efficiency for our customers."
Cargill operates eight feed mills throughout Indonesia, targeting the poultry, pork and aquaculture sectors.
Meanwhile, last October saw Farmsco, a subsidiary of South Korean livestock and feed manufacturer, Harim Group, acquire the feed and poultry-breeding units of Indonesia’s Sujaya Group.
Neovia has been present in Indonesia since 1983 and has three complete feed factories - poultry and aquaculture. It bought leading Indonesian layer feed producer, Welgro, in 2015.
Nutreco also has two premix plants in Indonesia - its second, located in East Java, opened in September 2015.