Darling International Inc. has acquired VION Ingredients, which includes the animal by-product processing company Sonac. Sonac processes Category 1, 2, and 3 by-products from livestock and poultry into various products such as blood meal, feather meal, and animal fats. These products are sold globally, primarily in Europe, for uses such as aquafeed, pet food, fertilizer, and bioenergy. The acquisition will allow Darling and Sonac to expand their global operations and access new markets.

1. Digital Re-print January | February 2014
Minimising the livestock industry’s
environmental burden
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2. F
&Feed millinG technoloGy
44 | January - February 2014
Grain
Minimising the
livestock industry’s
environmental
burden
GFMT interviews Sonac’s international sales
manager Geert van Der velden
The Netherlands
L
earning how livestock carcasses and by-products are processed
is giving greater confidence to
consumers that the threat of contamination cannot now enter the food chain
– and that in addition the burden on
the environment is being reduced.
Animal protein for ruminants
While in Europe there is currently no
legal approval for the use of animal
proteins in ruminant diets, there is a
strong market for blood meals and
haemoglobin powder in the dairy sector
in the USA as it is a proven, valuable
source of by-pass protein.
“Here for example, we use a protective soybean meal that is heat treated as
an alternative to animal proteins.
“However, we do have one ruminant application: we sell a lot of animal
fats into the milk replacer market for
calves. There is a massive industry in
The Netherlands for fattening young
calves up to almost one year of age.
They are only fed milk replacers so
they can produce white meat which
is considered a specialty here. These
products are also sold to France and
Italy as white veal.”
Category One animals, those that die on
farm including those with disease, whether
it's a cow, chicken or a pig, triggers a sophisticated logistics collection and monitoring
system whereby farmers use the internet to
inform company Rendac who records, collects and delivers the carcass to it’s dedicated
processing plant in Son, in The Netherlands
“This is what we call Category One – this
material will not return to the feed chain. It is
mostly used for energy purposes and as such
goes towards green energy initiatives. This is
just one of the activities that we have here,”
says Geert Van Der Velden, international
sales manager for Sonac in The Netherlands.
“We also have two Category Three lines
in Son for products that can go back into
feed.
“One line is a hydrolyzed feather protein,
which can be used in aqua feeds.
“In addition we have a blood meal line,
which is from mixed species. This product
is not allowed for aqua feeds but instead is
allowed in petfood and in fur animal feeds.
These are Category Three products.
By-products from animal manure
“We also have a plant in Son to do fat
refinery, where we process fats in order
to make sustainable materials for bio diesel
fuels. We are also currently in the process
of building a plant to process pig manure –
there has recently been new legislation that
limits the amount of phosphates and nitrates
that are allowed onto land. So if farmers
want to produce more animals we provide a
solution for their manure.
“We have high stock densities within The
Netherlands, and our farmers have to provide
the government with a contract stating that the
manure they produce is being processed correctly – we have currently contracted approximately 100 thousand tonnes of manure.
“There are multiple phases in which we
will produce different products. In the solid
phase we will turn it into pellets and it is sold
as an organic fertilizer, exported to countries
that are short on organic materials.
“When it is in the liquid phase it will
be used in our biogas plants and used for
electricity generation.
“This is quite an impressive operation. We
have a broad portfolio of different products
and activities. For example, we are currently
processing some eggshells, but as eggshells
are commonly provided by hatcheries, there
might be dead birds present. Therefore this is
classed as Category Two material.
“We process this material in a special way
and then it is sent as feed for fur animals such
as mink and foxes. This is a business forbidden in the UK and here. Some people don’t
like it, but nevertheless there is a market for
fur coats and these animals are still being
farmed.
“If we don’t produce it here, it will be
produced in places such as Denmark, China,
Poland or the Baltic States.”

3. www.gencdegirmen.com.tr

4. F
&Feed millinG technoloGy
46 | January - February 2014
Protecting the environment
“Basically, we are working out of a delta; if
we cannot sell a product for a high price we
must procure raw materials at a lower cost
and minimize processing fees.
“In general when we are looking at a
supply chain, you want to find the product
that sells at the highest price possible – as it
allows you to provide your suppliers with a
better return. It is better for the long-term
sustainability of the animal supply chain.
“At the same time we have to always
pay attention to what we are putting into
our environment. It is a burden on us, but
we must always watch our environmental
impact.
“If we produce something with great
care, you always want to ensure that it is
used in the best possible way. I find that it
is the main target we have in this industry.
“Obviously meat, which is the major
part of livestock rearing, is consumed and
stands alone for what we provide. But we
should ensure that all parts of the animal
are taken proper care of when utilising their
by-products.
“Historically, we could say that the byproduct left over from the animal was
relatively small. As in the old days you would
have backyard slaughtering where individuals
were processing the whole pig and using the
parts for themselves.
“But with the move to mass industrialization, you have a lot of by-products that
no individual can take care of. For example
in the UK everyone at one time ate black
pudding; but now very few eat it. This
illustrates one challenging aspect. Recently
information came out of the UK that it is
trying to get a movement going whereby
by-products for ingredients such as lard are
more extensively used by consumers. We
like that idea, but these are mostly still niche
developments.
“Unfortunately the masses will still go to
McDonalds and other fast food outlets. So we
have to find the best applications in which to
most effectively re-utilize the parts in an effective way; maybe pharmaceutical uses.
Retailers are still cautious
“What was relatively new to us was the
reintroduction of animal proteins into aquafeed. It will become an additional application
in poultry feed, but we are still waiting for EU
approval, but the aquafeed approval is there
nonetheless.
“These are massive changes, and although
it would be good to hop on it early – many
retailers may not like the utilization of animal
proteins. Many consumers still object to it,
so these are the restrictions we must work
around. The EU authorities have put restrictions on what can and cannot be used. For
example there cannot be any contamination
– no bovine DNA - it is extremely strict. The
methods to analyze are PCR that are very
sensitive. Because of this you have to organize dedicated slaughterhouses, transporters,
people and then more dedicated transporters from the plant to customers.
“Plants have to be dedicated. We need
Grain
to develop special lines and plants where we
specifically supply the hydrolyzed phetaprotein for aquaculture, for example. We have
another plant doing poultry meal, another
doing poultry blood meal and yet another
doing pork blood meal.
Global markets for aqua
Globally, Sonac’s sales breakdown by species
is roughly 40 percent pig, 35 percent poultry and
everything thats left goes towards aquafeeds.
Most products are sold in Europe.
“As a company our biggest footprint for
aquafeed would be within Europe. However,
I would say the largest market for aqua products would be China. Our Chinese operation
is much smaller but sells quite a bit into the
market. We see potential growth in this area
in future.
“Bigger companies, such as Skretting and
Biomar are looking to acquire or expand
operations in China.
“Another example of a growing market is
Australia where Sonac’s blood product plant
services Skretting, which dominates 95%
of that market in salmon production. The
Australian company Ridley, in the Brisbane
area, has two aquafeed plants as well.
“We are hardly selling into Norway however – it is still without blood animal proteins.
We look at countries with different species,
like Denmark which has two production
plants processing trout; Germany which has a
plant, France, Poland, Italy, Greece – we also
export occasionally to Turkey as well.
“The Turkish market has grown huge
recently with its trout, seabream and seabass
production. Egypt is a hard market though
as it does not import much from Europe.”
The aquisition
When asked if the aquisition by Darling
will effect Sonac products in Europe, Mr
Van Der Velden answers, “We still sell our
products as Sonac and they will not become
a part of the DarPro product line.
“Nevertheless, we try to achieve synergies and see how we can come together
– especially in the Asian markets. Because
we are primarily active in separate markets
- DarPro in North America and Sonac in
Europe - we are hoping to bring proteins
from both markets to Asia.”
DarPro in comparison would be on an
equal ratio of 1:1 with Sonac, with hardly any
overlap in products, portfolio or geographic
areas marketed to, he adds.
When asked if there were opportunities
to bring Sonac products to the USA, Mr
Van Der Velden said, “ Yes and no – we do
bring some special products to the USA, but
more importantly is the OIE update for its
qualifications for BSE risk.
“The USA, Netherlands as well as
Belgium have been classified as negliable risk.
with regard to BSE.
“This makes it far easier to export bovine
material to the USA. This will be a major
help for doing business from here to the
USA – it will take about 33 months for this
law to take effect, but then we will export
more to the USA.”
Darling International
Inc. completes the VION
ingredients acquisition
- which includes feed
industry supplier Sonac
Darling International Inc with over 120
rendering processing plants, announced
on January 8, 2014 that it had completed the planned acquisition of VION
Ingredients, a division of VION Holding
NV (a member of the VION Food
Group), for approximately €1.6 billion
in cash.
VION Ingredients is a worldwide
leader in the development and production of specialty ingredients from animal
origin for applications in pharmaceuticals, food, feed, pet food, fertilizer and
bioenergy.
Headquartered in Son en Breugel,
The Netherlands, VION Ingredients'
global network of facilities on five continents covers all aspects of animal byproduct processing through six brands
including Rendac (rendering), Sonac
(proteins, fats, edible fats and blood
products), Ecoson (green power),
Rousselo (gelatin), CTH (natural casings) and Best Hides (hides).
Vion Ingredients, now Darling
Ingredients International had sales revenue at January 8, 2014 equated to
€115 billion. Under the brand names
of Darling the total company has combined sales revenues of approximately
US$4billion.
New markets include Nigeria for aquafeed
and also South Africa for petfoods as well.
“We plan to expand into South America,
South East Asia and then possible Africa as
our next target markets. When in South
Africa I asked why they didn’t render their
own poultry, relying on imports. This was
because they eat all the by-products locally,
leaving nothing for reworking.”
In China Sonac provide blood products
exclusively for feed – however, it is hoping
to develop the blood pudding market for the
food sector
“While blood pudding isn’t popular in
Europe, it is still very popular in China and
South East Asia,” he adds.

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