Fish feed in pellets. (Photo: BioMar)

BioMar to build new feed plant in Australia

DENMARK
Thursday, March 23, 2017, 22:50 (GMT + 9)

Danish company BioMar is to invest DKK 300 million (USD 43.6 million) in the construction of a production plant in Australia in an attempt to continue its global expansion.

The new plant is expected to be completed in 2019 and will facilitate an annual capacity of 110,000 tonnes of fish feed.

Through recent years, the Danish fish feed manufacturer has increased sales volume in the Australian market with supplies from its own plants in Chile and Scotland.

“Since 2005, we have engaged in a very active ownership of BioMar, and have since then trebled the revenue of the business in 2016 to about DKK 9 billion (USD 1.3 billion),” pointed out Jens Bjerg Sørensen, President of Schouw & Co., owner of BioMar.

The entrepreneur stressed that a new growth strategy named 'Shaping the future' was launched, where focus is on becoming even more global.

Currently, about 20 per cent of all fish farmed in Europe, South and Central America are fed with feed from one of BioMar's plants. Last year BioMar opened a plant in Turkey with a capacity of 50,000 tonnes, and this year BioMar's second Chinese plant will be completed in Wuxi near Shanghai. This plant will also facilitate an annual capacity of 50,000 tonnes.

At the same time, BioMar will expand capacity at the Norwegian plant in Karmøy, north of Stavanger, with no less than 140,000 tonnes a year. The expansion in Norway alone constitutes an investment of DKK 500 million (USD 72.6 million).

“Growth is a key word - both to us and to the industry as a whole. The global market for aqua culture has now passed DKK 400 billion and grows by 5-6 per cent each year. This obviously means that we too are to increase our capacity,” explained Carlos Dias, CEO of BioMar Group.

Last year BioMar manufactured 966,000 tonnes of fish feed at its plants. In 2017, the capacity will be increased by about 200,000 tonnes, and from 2019 by additional 110,000 tonnes at the new plant in Australia.

The Australian plant will primarily manufacture feed to the farming of species within which BioMar has great experience, and to which BioMar is among the most acknowledged suppliers in the market. 

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