The newly established high-end facility, a division of the Netherlands-based Nutreco, allows Skretting to further enhance support for its customers and the Indian aquaculture sector. SHV Holdings NV, a family-owned Dutch multinational, owns Nutreco.
With 125 years of experience and an innovative approach, Skretting has led the global position in salmon and shrimp. According to a press release, the company has manufacturing footprints in 18 countries and produces three million tonnes of feed annually for over 60 species from hatching to harvest.
On February 13, Sanjeev Balyan, Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying, and Michiel van Erkel, Agriculture Counsellor for India and Sri Lanka, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, will inaugurate the facility.
The 20,000-square-meter facility, which cost €18.5 million to build, will serve both shrimp and fish aquaculture. White tiger and black tiger shrimp will be cultured, while Indian major carps and high-value fish such as snakehead and seabass will be cultured.
The Mangrol facility has three production lines with a total annual capacity of 50,000 tonnes. It can produce both extruded-floating and pelleted-sinking feed depending on the species and customers' needs. There is also enough land and infrastructure to expand production capacity in the future.
"We are thrilled to announce the launch of our state-of-the-art production facility at Mangrol in Surat. We have been meeting the needs of shrimp hatcheries, nurseries and farmers since 2018 in India, and supporting customers across feed-farm-health with our high-quality feed and services. The new facility enables us to contribute our bit to the prestigious Aatmanirbhar Bharat - Make in India initiative, while simultaneously improving the efficiencies for a closer connect with our customers. We will cater to the domestic market and also customers in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Middle East," said Saurabh Shekhar, general manager of Nutreco South Asia.
In accordance with the Sustainability RoadMap 2025 and Nutrace, the facility is equipped to support both sustainability and feed-to-food safety measures. The premises has systems such as rainwater harvesting and an effluent treatment plant as part of their Nuterra sustainability measures. In addition, the factory adheres to Nutrace's global feed-to-food safety and quality programme for end-to-end tracking and traceability, which certifies supplier assessments and checks at each critical point.
"The factory is key to achieving our purpose of feeding the future in growth territories of Asia and India. We already have plants in Vietnam, Japan, China and Indonesia to strengthen our presence in Asia and establishing a state-of-the-art production facility at Mangrol, Surat reinforces our commitment to South Asia and Indian markets. Construction of the factory started in September 2020 and the work was completed in just over two years despite the various challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The facility has also generated local employment opportunities with 120 employees. This is just the beginning in our journey to gain a stronger foothold here," said Jurrien Zandbergen, managing director of Nutreco, Asia.
"We strongly believe that innovation and digitalisation are the future for sustainable development in aquaculture and livestock. That is why we invest €20 million annually on innovation looking for next-gen technologies like bacteriophages that can provide solutions to critical health challenges of aquaculture. At the same time, our digitally enabled solutions like AquaSim and Skretting 360 have been responsible for improving production and transforming aquaculture industry in countries like Ecuador. With this facility and our stronger footprints, we only aim to replicate some of these success stories in India as well," said Therese Log Bergjord, CEO, Skretting.