The Germany-based Evonik Industries AG and US-based Perdue AgriBusiness announced the partnership Monday [June 24]. The focus of the project will be on marketing GutCare – a probiotic focused on use with poultry and monogastric species – in the US.
Aligning with Perdue AgriBusiness (PAB) to expand the use of the product in the US market was of interest for several reasons, said Ken O’Halloran, regional vice president in animal nutrition, Evonik.
"PAB is the right partner for Evonik because of its proven leadership in providing agricultural ingredients and technical expertise to customers.”
“The collaboration between our two companies should benefit both companies, stemming from a broader market access for our GutCare probiotic,” he told FeedNavigator.
Perdue is a well-known brand with a strong market reputation and is thought of as a “trusted partner” when working with feed ingredients for livestock, he said.
PAB processes, sources and sells agricultural commodities. It provides a range of feed ingredients including oilseeds, soybean meal, mixed feed ingredients and seed oils. The company’s feed-focused segment manages almost a million tons of feed ingredients annuals, the company said.
“We see a great fit to our Evonik company values, especially when it comes to our science-based approach, technical expertise and service provided to customers,” O’Halloran said. “We believe that PAB and Evonik complement each other very well and are very excited about this partnership.”
Working with Perdue is a way to combine resources to provide “the best feed ingredients and functional feed additives” for the market, he added.
Work on the collaboration has already started.
“Both PAB and Evonik will combine resources to sell GutCare and leverage existing synergies of both companies,” he said. “This will ultimately increase our footprint and brand awareness in the US market.”
Evonik is interested in expanding into the US market, in part, because of the expansion of ‘no antibiotics ever’ and antibiotic-free production practices, he said. “Also, we see an increased interested from end consumers for sustainable products,” he added.
The heat-stable probiotic was developed to germinate and develop in intestinal conditions for poultry and swine, he said.
