FBA Issue 32: May / June 2010
Biomin's naturally sensible solutions
25 years ago when the feed mills were unaware of the threats posed by mycotoxins, Biomin was already at the forefront of their research. Through the years, the company has played a key role in raising the industry's mycotoxin awareness and developing natural growth promoting concepts.
Biomin Asia's regional director, Jan Vanbrabant, notes that the company's "activities started in the early eighties and at that time the market was very different from what it is now." Aside from a lack of awareness about the threat posed by mycotoxins, that era featured rampant, uncontrolled use of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) in animal feed "and not many animal producers were interested in natural ingredients," he explains.
"Still from the start, we started to go down the natural route. 'Naturlich im Futter' - literally translated as 'Naturally in the feed' - was our slogan from the early days," Vanbrabant adds.
Since then, the company has developed and produced specialty feed additives, premixes and services to improve animal health and performance. It is known for sustainable, high quality products such as its Mycofix product line, which makes Biomin a key player in the neutralization of fungal toxins. "Being the fore fighter in the market was at the same time a big challenge," Vanbrabant says.
The other major opportunity in the market was the EU's 2006 banning of AGPs in animal feed, which was followed by similar bans or restrictions on AGP use in many other countries. With the ban, European feed and livestock stakeholders could no longer sweep problems caused by mycotoxins under the rug with high antibiotic dosages.
Along with rising consumer awareness of possible threats to human health posed by AGPs, this legislative reform stimulated the industry's adoption of natural remedies. Vanbrabant recalls that "this fitted well with our 'The Natural Way' strategy."
Both in Europe and elsewhere, the company rapidly expanded to meet fast growing demand for natural livestock growth promoting solutions. Together with its parent company - Erber Group - Biomin now has over 750 people and is present in 43 countries worldwide. Vanbrabant points out that one of the main success factors is "innovation for the benefit of our customers."
He also cites that Biomin brands with strong reputations include Mycofix, Biomin PEP, Biotronic and Poultry Star. Vanbrabant states that to further leverage the technical superiority of the above product lines, "we are standing very close to our distributing partners and our customers and foster long standing relationships. We work with local people in the areas that best understand the needs of our industry."
For Biomin, an excellent customer relationship is "all about the quality and attitude of the people that are responsible for this aftersales support. Not only our technical people, but also our sales persons are highly trained. And we are working with local people in the market. And of course our state-of-the-art laboratories that can provide all lab services that are needed by our customers."
Indeed, much of the input received from its ground-level network of feed and livestock makers is soon transformed into new products. He explains that "By standing very close to our customers, we are in a position that allows us to react very quickly to changes in the market. Our aim is however to be pro-active, rather than reactive."
That is because for Biomin, observing firsthand what customers need has always been a very big driver of its innovation strategy. According to Vanbrabant, the process "empowers our customers to master existing and future challenges in animal nutrition. 'Naturally ahead' confirms this commitment to enable our customers to stay naturally ahead in their business."
With innovation acting as the most important factor in the company's continuous growth over the last 15 years, Biomin invests 5% of its turnover to its R&D. Moreover, much of this basic research is augmented by arrangements with a global network of academic institutes.
Vanbrabant elaborates that, "In cooperation with universities and research institutes, our researchers successfully develop animal feed additives. These products are further investigated by research institutions all over the world for applicability at local conditions and production systems. Thus, over the last years, we have had collaboration projects with more than 80 research institutes and universities worldwide," the company says.
It's main R&D location is in Tulln Austria. The R&D headquarters is complimented by Centers of Applied Nutrition (CAN) in both Austria and Thailand. These centres provide the company with a platform for innovating and testing leading edge feeding concepts and economically viable animal production. All the centres are located close to their large European and Asian customer bases.
Through such arrangements, Biomin's R&D efforts continue to define new frontiers in feed and livestock-based microbiology, molecular biology, cell biology, fermentation and biochemical analytics. It then leverages its findings into high quality products by sourcing raw materials from selected suppliers, controlling all production steps, quality checking all end-products prior to their leaving the plant. The after-sales service network described above then then closely monitors their delivery to the customers while collecting their feedback.
Among top Biomin brands are Mycofix, which is a modular system that protects animal health by deactivating those mycotoxins ingested in with respectively contaminated feed; Biotronic, an animal feed acidifier based on a powerful combination of synergistically acting organic acids and salts, with preserving animal feed as one of its major features; Biomin PEP, a natural phytogenic (plant-based) formula designed specifically to improve the palatability and safety of animal feed while solving some of the problems hogs endured after AGPs were banned; and Poultry Star, a symbiotic product that uses probiotic microorganisms and prebiotic fructooligosaccharides to promote beneficial gut microflora.
The company ensures that its products are designed on the principles of NutriEconomics, which it defines as a combination of nutrition, economics and environmental sustainability. Starting with the nutritive value of the feed, the company looks into key concerns such as safety and palatability in coming up with nutritionally balanced, high quality diets.
Cost saving measures are also important, especially with feed costs taking up two-thirds of the total expenses in animal production. With feed costs rising significantly over the last few years, producers are being challenged to maintain their tradtional returns on investment. To help them in this endeavour, Biomin is researching solutions that will result in better livestock performance and improved feed efficiency.
Last, but just as important, is a concern for environmental sustainability. With limited resources, Biomin as an animal nutrition company, defines its role as one of using advanced feed additive solutions to facilitate the ascendancy of sustainable, profitable farming. The resulting rise in feed efficiency and livestock performance in turn helps reduce levels of methane and other greenhouse gases emitted by livestock.
With the global feed and livestock gradually shifting towards more natural animal raising options, Biomin's benefited by taking ever higher market shares. Vanbrabant notes that "growth in Asia for 2009 was 30% while global growth was 20%. The strongest growth is in mycotoxin deactivation and natural growth promoters, including Biomin PEP, Poultry Star and Biotronic."
This year, Biomin is expecting the same robust growth as last year. "The company has doubled its business in the last five years and is on track to double it again in the next five years," Vanbrabant states.
To be able to achieve further growth, "our output has to be based on sustainability and we have to invest further in new technologies and new products, with investment focus in agro, food and biotechnology," he adds.
Having already moved far beyond its EU home base, Biomin sees the production of animal protein in fast growing developing countries as one of the most industry segments. Hence, it intends to stay at industry's forefront by further penetrating the feed and livestock markets of BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China).
Amid tough competition in the natural feed supplements market, Biomin intends to stay ahead by continuing to focus on its key values: innovation, partnership, sustainability and appreciation. It maintains a strong investment in R&D to stay ahead of competition, continually invest in new technologies, foster an open company culture where talented staff can grow, and cultivate long standing relationships with its distribution partners and customers.
For this year and in the next few years, "the company has a well filled product pipeline, but we are not going to give it all away already. The biggest addition to our product lines for this year will be a yeast product line, produced in our own fermentation plant in Brazil, completed in 2008. This was the biggest investment so far in the history of Biomin," Vanbrabant says.
With a solid history of innovation behind it and a bright future ahead, Biomin's Vanbrabant sums up that, "our products and services offer a difference - that make a difference - to our customers. The value proposition of our products and reliability of our services help to unlock the potential of animal nutrition - the natural way."
At the front line of feed research
At the Global Feed Summit in Bali, Indonesia, we were honoured to speak with Inês Rodrigues, MSc, BIOMIN's technical manager and past contributor of articles to FBA's AnimalNUTRITION section. She shares her opinions and insights with us
What are BIOMIN's chief products now?
Biomin's main product is mycotoxin deactivators and we' ve been doing a lot of R&D in mycotoxin risk management. We also have a line of natural growth promoters such as organic acids, phytogenics, silage innoculents and phytase.
Is the movement to ban AGPs influencing the types of products BIOMIN develops?
Definitely. The global trend is to ban AGPs worldwide We started some years ago with natural growth promoters. In that sense, we developed 'NGPs.' In the future, these will be used more widely, especially with regards to food safety and feed safety because animal health and human health are connected. We are not what we eat, we are what they eat,
Do you believe feed shortfalls are quality problems with feed grains and oil seeds?
Of course, the shortage of feed grains is playing a big role and we can see that when I visit customers; because they do not really select the saource of their feed commodities. Because the supply is so limited, they have to go for lower quality raw materials. Naturally, this increases the probability of other problems.
Are there any climate or geographical features unique to Asia which make feed contamination more of an issue here?
First of all, Asia is very big, in terms of mycotoxins. If you talk ab out north Asia, such as in China, there you will have a climate similar to europein terms of mycotoxin contaminagtion such zearlonone, DON and FUM. As we go into Southeat asia and specifically India, we have a big problem with aflatoxins and ochratoxins. By comparison, in Southeast Asia, we see a mixture of aflatoxins and storage toxins.
Does Asia's infrastructure deficit create problems?
Here you not only have problems with mycotxinsins in the field but also with respect to drying, or a lack of it. In some Asian countries, it is a common image when you drive a car to see corn drying in the fields, but then it rains at night. In places like Vietnam, you can see this clearly. In addition, the poor storage facilities and the presence of insects and rhodents which by damage corn kernels makes matters worst. Along with the damage they get in storage, high temperatures and humidity increases the probability of mycotoxin contamination.
In following China's hog sector, I've noticed that sows there often have poor success in reproducing? Do you believe this is mycotoxin related?
First problem in china is a lack of knowledge regarding the problems that mycotoxins cause. I would say another big problem is poor livestock management. At the end of the day, you have so many issues together that you cannot separate them entirely from each other. Yet, you can see the problems caused by moulds in our international mycotoxin survey.
So in that way, mycotoxins are a problem but its part of a bigger picture with both natural and human elements. The culture can be a barrier to any kind of advice.
Which mycotoxins do you believe are the most dangerous for human consumption? Which ones have greatest impact on animal production?
If we talk about human health, the legislated mycotoxin is aflatoxin M1 in milk. Therefore, it's the major one in terms of human health. In terms of animal health, all of them have a big impact in the overall productivity and livestock immunity.
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