BioMar upgrades Chinese feed plant
DANISH feed group BioMar further developed its market in China with the upgrading of its Haiwei plant in the south of the country.
Along with its joint venture partner, the Chinese Tongwei Group, BioMar last month inaugurated a new production line for extruded feed and a new warehouse at the Haiwei facility.
BioMar-Tongwei has had a good start to the year at the plant, which continues the growth experienced in the last couple of years.
The Haiwei factory is located in the Pearl River Delta in an area with a large production of, among other species, Japanese sea bass and snakehead.
Henrik Aarestrup, vice president of emerging markets at BioMar, who attended the inauguration with Niels Alsted, vice chairman of the board of BioMar-Tongwei, said: ‘The new extruder line is part of an upgrade of the factory where we have replaced older equipment with more efficient technology. It will make us more flexible towards the customers and allow for continued growth.
‘We expect to sell around 60,000 tonnes this year. We have a very strong team, headed by our general manager Mr Liu, in place in Haiwei, and they have already more than doubled their sales in the last three years.’
The farmers represented at the inauguration lunch together produce more than 200,000 tonnes of fish a year, he added, ‘so we still have room for growth with Haiwei’.
The aquaculture production in the Pearl River Delta is competing with a fast urban development.
‘Access to water and space suitable for fish farming is an increasing challenge,’ said Aarestrup.
‘Our know-how in high performance environmentally friendly diets will therefore become more relevant in the years to come.’