The site opening coincided with the commencement of production at an integrated poultry and fish feed mill at Ilorin in Kwara State.
Between them, the two state-of-the-art animal feed mills, poultry breeding farms and hatchery have an investment value of US$150 million.
The two sites have a combined capacity of 720,000 metric tonnes of poultry feed annually. Olam hopes these facilities directly address a significant supply gap for poultry meat in Nigeria, giving farmers and distributors access to high-quality feed and DOC at competitive prices. In addition, Olam’s team of field veterinarians will train up to 10,000 farmers a year in best poultry farming practices.
Olam estimates that poultry meat consumption among Nigerians could increase up to 10-fold by 2040, “provided domestic supply can meet increased demand and based on prices becoming more affordable for Nigerians”.
Olam projects that its investment in these sites will enhance domestic poultry production by approximately eight billion eggs and 100 million kilogrammes of poultry meat - the equivalent of 40 eggs and 0.5 kilogrammes of chicken per Nigerian per year.
This will also result in a reduction in the foreign exchange currency spent on illegal low-quality frozen imports, which is currently estimated at US$150m-US$200m per year.
Olam’s managing director and CEO for Grains, KC Suresh, said: “We have leveraged our deep knowledge of Nigeria – 27-years’ experience across exports, imports, manufacturing and farmer engagement – to identify the needs of Nigerian consumers. We thank the governors of Kaduna and Kwara States for supporting our projects. Our world-class facilities will provide high-quality, cost-effective products that will help farmers and rural Nigerians to prosper. In the same way that Olam Grains has built a highly successful wheat milling footprint across Africa, we will be looking to scale our animal feed operations, both in and beyond Nigeria.”
As part of its responsibility programme, the company has introduced an integrated rainwater harvesting programmes at both sites for in-house water requirements and a boiler that utilises renewable agri-waste fuels to reduce dependence on fossil-fuel based energy. It is also working with various state governments to enable a regular supply of eggs for school meal programmes at below-market prices.