Kemira Agro´s Animal Nutrition business unit has acquired Kynoch Feeds in South Africa, a wholly owned subsidiary of AECI Limited. The company supplies high quality feed phosphates and offers a wide range of other products to the animal husbandry industry. Kynoch Feeds has net sales of USD 45 million and a personnel of 233 people.
The acquisition has become a natural development after the establishment in 1998 of KK Animal Nutrition - a joint venture between Kemira Animal Nutrition and Kynoch Feeds on marketing and sales to overseas markets.
The company's target markets are in the Middle East, South East Asia, Australia and South America. Through the acquisition and the new plant in Jordan Kemira Agro will strengthen its position considerably on these markets, especially in the Asian growth areas.
Kemira Agro Animal Nutrition already holds a strong position in Europe and will after the Kynoch Feeds acquisition rank among the four largest producers of inorganic feed phosphates worldwide.
Including the new plant producing potassium nitrate and dicalcium phosphate in Jordan, with production starting during the fourth quarter of 2002, Kemira will have a production capacity of 725,000 tons of feed phosphates per year. The animal nutrition business strategy is to build up a world class position to the benefit of end users and shareholders.
Kemira Agro´s phosphates production in Europe, Jordan and South Africa is based on the purest phosphate rocks.
Kemira Agro Animal Nutrition currently also supplements its product range with feed acids which are now being introduced on the market, and a new production unit is being built in Sweden.