“We have taken important steps to manage all of our internal and external relations with a sustainable and strategic approach by making the most comprehensive use of communication tools. We believe that accurate communication efforts will greatly support us in achieving the goals we have set.”

Öğüt Köse General Manager Trouw Nutrition Türkiye

Trouw Nutrition, the animal nutrition brand of the century-old Nutreco, operates 22 production facilities in 105 countries. Trouw Nutrition, which entered Turkey in 2007 by engaging in a 50-percent-cooperation with Interkim A.Ş., purchased all of Interkim's shares in 2010 and showed that it made long-term plans for the country market. Today, it is working to strengthen its position in the country and increase its market share with its production facility in Zonguldak, headquarters in Ankara, and the Warehouse-Logistics Center in Izmir. We had the opportunity to talk to Öğüt Köse, General Manager of Trouw Nutrition Turkey, about the story of Trouw Nutrition in Turkey and which products and services they provide to the animal nutrition industry.

You represent the Turkey division of Trouw Nutrition, the brand of Nutreco in the feed additives market, which operates in 80 countries with nearly 11 thousand employees. How did Trouw Nutrition Turkey's story begin? As you have stated, Trouw Nutrition, the animal nutrition brand of Nutreco, a 100-year-old global industry giant operating in the field of animal nutrition and aquaculture feed in 80 countries around the world, is active in the development of smarter and sustainable ways to breed healthy livestock and pets with its extensive experience. With its strong staff in a total of 32 countries, it works to solve the difficulties faced by the food chain ranging from feed to processed food and to help its customers. Trouw Nutrition's broad portfolio of feed specialties, feed additives, premixes, nutrition models and services makes our brand a one-stop-shop that provides unlimited opportunities for the creation of tailor-made, integrated solutions tailored to each customer's local situation. Trouw Nutrition, with 22 production facilities in 105 countries, supports farmers, enterprises producing their own feed, feed producers, integrated producers, and distributors wherever they need. Believing that proper nutrition and good farm management can transform the industry and even the planet, Trouw Nutrition, the world's animal nutrition expert, is expanding its country network while working towards the sustainable functioning of today's food chain ranging from feed to processed food with this goal. Trouw Nutrition started its adventure in Turkey in 2007 by cooperating with İnterkim A.Ş. 50 percent, and in 2010 strengthened its presence in Turkey by purchasing all of the shares of Interkim A.Ş.

As Trouw Nutrition Turkey, we have been carrying out our activities since 2007 with our headquarters in Ankara, our production facility in Zonguldak and our Warehouse-Logistics Center in Izmir. We work with an increasing momentum every year with our global network, strong R&D structure, quality, wide and expandable product range, solution-oriented services, experienced human capital, technological and digital infrastructure. By combining our global brand power with our ability to dominate the dynamics of the local market, we are taking firm steps towards becoming the solution partner of the industry.

Do you have any production activities in Turkey? Could you give information about the company's R&D policy? As Trouw Nutrition Turkey, we believe that the way to raise healthy generations is through good nutrition, and we constantly work to improve our products day by day. In this context, we attach great importance to R&D and allocate an average of 20 million Euros every year to research and development. We cooperate with prominent universities and institutes and carry out joint innovation activities with our customers. With the know-how of Masterlab, which we have made one of the world's leading laboratories, we are always looking for ways to offer better to the users.

We focus on zero defects and much higher quality in production in our factory in Zonguldak, which is established on an area of approximately 10 thousand square meters and has an annual production capacity of 25 thousand tons. Here, we produce special products such as vitamin and mineral premixes and toxin binders for the ruminant, fish, and poultry categories. We procure yeast and organic acid mixtures.

Thanks to the automation renewal investment we have implemented in our factory, we can manage the entire production process from a computer screen. Thanks to our system that minimizes manual processes, we can operate all machines in production automatically. We automatically dose (weigh) the raw materials from the silos in accordance with the recipe, take them into the mixer and then send them to the packaging department following the mixing process. In this way, we can track which raw material has been used in which product during production and which employee has made the production on a party basis. While tracking the weight of each package in the packaging department, we can also control the amount of production and bag weights. Thanks to having remote access to the factory, we can follow the production closely at all times and under all conditions, intervene and fix faults quickly, and keep our system up-to-date by updating the software in the system when necessary.

In addition to increasing our factory automation investments, we have succeeded in adding the GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) Certificate, which is one of the cornerstones of the European Union regulations, among the quality certificates we have. This document basically tracks whether the products produced in the facilities are produced in a safe environment without exposure to contamination and infection. GMP, an EU-compliant quality certificate, checks whether measures have been taken to eliminate potential internal and external sources of contamination and certify that the products are produced in safe and good conditions. The GMP Certificate, which we have been awarded as a result of a wide range of examinations from the raw material we use to equipment cleaning and personal hygiene of our employees, has been an important step that supports our activities in the way of contributing to the Turkish livestock sector and healthy nutrition of our society. With the renewal of the automation system, we are ready to offer brand new products and services for the feed industry in the coming days. We will launch our new products that will provide ease of use with practical packages suitable for the different needs of our breeders for the Turkish livestock sector very soon. We will continue our innovative work in Turkey, with the power of our headquarters in the Netherlands, our R&D centers in different continents, and also Masterlab.

What products and services do you provide to the animal nutrition industry? Is there any change in this matter soon or recently? For animals to grow healthily and to produce meat, milk and eggs efficiently, the nutrients needed must be obtained from reliable sources. At this point, it is of great importance to make sure that there are no components that adversely affect the animal and therefore human health in the content of feed ingredients. Due to the long laboratory analysis times required for the determination of feed raw ingredients and feed content and their high costs, the analysis needs of the feed industry, which makes very fast production, are not always fully met.

Within the framework of our mission to be a solution partner for feed producers, we attach great importance to R&D and innovation and we carry out significant studies in this regard. In this context, as a result of our long years of research and intensive R&D studies, we are very happy that we have succeeded in putting the modular precision feeding system NutriOpt, which provides technical support to the sector with real-time analysis, modeling and calculation skills, into the disposal of the Turkish livestock sector.

NutriOpt which we developed with the measurements of our NIR, NOA and Mycomaster devices and Masterlab's know-how in order to ensure accurate and fast analysis of nutrient content and to match these nutrients with the needs of animals at the optimum level, we can analyze on-site quickly the nutritional content of feed and raw materials for different animal species without the need to send them to the laboratory and we contribute to preventing health problems and losses that may occur due to malnutrition in animals. Thanks to NutriOpt, which we have launched with an innovative and proactive approach, we also support the completion of animals' life cycles healthily by making feeding recommendations in line with their age, breed and digestive system. With this system that provides time savings, profitability and process control, we aim to increase the productivity of the livestock sector, improve its production conditions and increase its financial strength. We provide high added value to our industry with our innovative products, digital services and wide global network that we have realized in the light of science and technology, and we are being positioned as a strong solution partner of our stakeholders. We believe that NutriOpt, which we designed to obtain analytical results in a fast, easy and reliable way, will contribute to the formation of efficient nutrition strategies and the development of our industry.

With our LifeStart concept, which is implemented as an innovative solution, we are maximizing the genetic potential of farms and poultry by improving the quality of early feeding and production performance through scientific methods. Producers operating in the cattle, ovine and poultry categories achieve high efficiency throughout the life of their animals, thanks to the calf, sheep/goat feed and chick and calf starter feeds included in this concept that we have developed by focusing on sustainable animal husbandry.

We are improving the healthy development of calves with Sprayfo Calf Starter Feed, one of our products included in our LifeStart concept, and Milkivit calf food, a natural milk substitute. With Farm-O-San, we are offering practical and easy-to-use nutritional solutions that focus on the higher performance of farm animals.

With Intellibond we developed under the Selko brand for the healthy development and high performance of poultry, we prevent the mineral deficiency in poultry and help them to develop healthily and show lifetime high performance. With the awareness that both farm and poultry animals can experience metabolic problems and diseases when they do not consume enough vitamins, we offer vitamin and mineral support with our Intevit and VitaFarm products. At Trouw Nutrition, we are using our extensive know-how on livestock and our experience in livestock nutrition to develop products and services that help the industry cope with the daily challenges.

OUR WORK IN TURKEY WILL CONTINUE WITH INCREASING ACCELERATION

Can we learn your assessment of the Turkish market? Could you give information about your market share and short and medium-term goals? What challenges and advantages can you talk about regarding the structure of this market? Sustainability is of great importance for animal health, safety and, consequently, human health in the livestock sector as in all sectors. At this point, issues such as limited resources, food safety, animal welfare, antibiotic resistance, environmental pollution, climate change and the loss of biodiversity should be taken into account. The increasing world population, urbanization, growing middle class and changing dietary habits have accelerated the demand for animal products, especially in developing markets. While this situation creates new opportunities for the growth of the feed industry, significant responsibilities fall upon the companies that serve the sector in order to feed animals and ultimately people in a sustainable, healthy and safe way. With the effect of the rapid increase in the world population, productivity in the livestock sector will become even more important in the coming years. As Trouw Nutrition Turkey, we will continue to provide high added value to the sector by continuing our work in the areas of animal health and welfare, climate change and circularity, sustainability and sectoral social responsibility with our strong supply network in the upcoming period. With the new generation programs, feed analysis service and innovative products we have developed, we will continue our efforts with increasing acceleration to support all our business partners operating in the livestock sector in Turkey for them to obtain the highest level of efficiency.

OUR COMMUNICATION ACTIVITIES ARE BEING APPRECIATED

Do you sell your products only in Turkey or do you also have an agreement for neighboring countries? Our region of activity is Turkey. However, we are also selling to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

I have observed that you have entered into a very vigorous and effective marketing campaign for about a year. What kind of reactions do you get from the industry for this promotion? With their increasing importance, corporate communication and marketing are one of the main factors that an institution or brand should pay attention to. In this context, we have taken important steps to manage all of our internal and external relations with a sustainable and strategic approach by making the most comprehensive use of communication tools. We believe that accurate communication efforts will greatly support us in achieving the goals we have set. Our communication activities enable us to express ourselves more accurately as a company, are a point of pride for our employees and are appreciated by our stakeholders and business partners. As Trouw Nutrition Turkey, we will continue our efforts to establish accurate, consistent and reliable communication with all our stakeholders, especially our employees, customers and business partners.