As part of efforts towards improving access to the right poultry feed for poultry farmers, Koudijs Ghana Limited has launched its complete layer feed to help improve chicken production in the country.

The new high-quality feed, which is produced locally, is expected to provide farmers and their animals with the right and strictly controlled nutrients in the most balanced ratios.

Access to feed has over the years been a challenge for poultry farmers in Ghana, with local agents only managing to produce about fifty-seven thousand metric tonnes, which is way below the national demand of about four hundred thousand metric tonnes every year.

Speaking to Citi Business News, General Manager of Koudijs Ghana Limited Hugo Visscher, said the introduction of the product will make poultry production in Ghana less difficult and help farmers increase poultry yield.

He also explained the readiness of his company, which has been in the Ghanaian market since 2005 but only now fully operating a local plant, to compete and become an easy reference point for feed supply.

“We want to be strong in the market, have a strong foothold in the market because we believe that with our knowledge, with our network, we are able to do the right thing in the market. For sure, you don’t start if you don’t want to get into competition with other feed suppliers in the market.”

“And it’s not our first market, and Ghana is definitely not the easiest market to enter, we have to admit. We believe that with the right consistency and quality, we have never been the easiest in the market; nowhere in the market, and that is also not our goal to be the cheapest in the market because we believe that if we do the right thing, that is when we can make the difference and so to say, fight with your competitors,” he explained.

Chief Executive Officer of the Royal de Heus Group, Koen de Heus, noted that the company plans that in the next three years, it will source 15% of its raw materials locally, an initiative he said: “fits perfectly into the Sustainable Goals of our global company.”

After years of adding value to Ghanaian farming, the company decided to intensify this strategy by opening this first factory in West Africa, in Ghana. The new factory has the capacity to produce 90,000 metric tons of feed every year.

Koudijs Ghana Limited is a subsidiary of Royal De Heus, which started as a local grain mill in the Netherlands in 1911.