Nutreco entered the Egyptian market in 2001 by acquiring 33 per cent of Hendrix Misr which has developed successfully since then.
Full ownership of Hendrix Misr offers Nutreco a good base to expand its activities in this attractive growth market. Egypt is the world's second largest tilapia producer after China. The Egyptian market for extruded fish feed is expected to achieve double-digit growth for the foreseeable future.
Hendrix Misr is Egypt's market leader in extruded fish feed (mainly tilapia) which is sold under the trade name Skretting, and a leading producer of poultry feed concentrates. Total revenue in 2012 was approximately €25 million. Nutreco intends to expand the current fish feed capacity of 25,000 tonnes to 75,000 tonnes by 2015.
Viggo Halseth, Nutreco's Chief Operating Officer for Aquaculture said: "This acquisition fits in very well with Nutreco's strategy 'Ambition 2016 - driving sustainable growth', which aims to expand in growth geographies as well as in fish feed for non-salmonid species. By moving to full ownership, we are able to accelerate the next phase of our growth ambition in this attractive market."
Nutreco's 'Ambition 2016 - driving sustainable growth' is to grow and improve profitability by providing innovative and sustainable nutritional solutions for its customers and is expected to result in an EBITA of EUR 400 million by 2016.
This will be realised by focusing on a higher added value portfolio of nutritional solutions such as premixes, feed specialties and fish feed, and by expanding into the growth geographies of Latin America, Russia, Asia and Africa, which will see the largest increases in both production and consumption of animal protein food products.
