April 12, 2023

 

Kemin's Chris Nelson: Educating and servicing the global market as the pandemic wanes

 

 

Founded in 1961, Kemin has over 500 specialty ingredients for human and animal health and nutrition, pet food, aquaculture, nutraceutical, food technologies, crop technologies and animal vaccine industries. The organisation has also established manufacturing facilities worldwide in Belgium, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Italy, San Marino, Singapore, South Africa and the United States.

 

This year, Kemin's business units, namely Kemin Animal Nutrition and Health (Asia Pacific and South Asia), Kemin Biologics and Kemin AquaScience™, came together to showcase their services and solutions at the VIV Asia 2023.

 

 
Chris Nelson, president and chief executive officer of Kemin Industries

 

Kemin's various businesses participated in this year's VIV Asia. Please describe the benefits and onsite event experiences customers, industry players and visitors can expect from this synergy.

 

Chris Nelson: In the 2019 edition of VIV Asia, Kemin focused primarily on educating visitors on the importance of protecting the animals' intestinal health. In 2023, with the gradual passing of the pandemic era, we have developed an umbrella theme of "empowering your transformation," which encompasses the ideals of the business units exhibiting together. These ideals that help address the needs through the value chain include reimagining feeding and farming, resilience to immune health, health-conscious consumers and sustainability.

 

Due to the presence of various subject matter experts, we could cater to the varying needs of customers and visitors from different fields. The teams from Kemin are subject matter experts in various fields, from vaccine technologies to feed ingredients for monogastric, ruminants and aquaculture.

 

At VIV Asia on March 8, Kemin Biologics hosted a satellite symposium where global experts discussed risk management and vaccine technologies to enable transboundary control (of avian influenza and lumpy skin disease) and respiratory integrity (concerning infectious bronchitis and Newcastle disease). With Kemin Biologics, we look forward to increasing awareness of the value of the latest vaccine technologies to build immune resilience in food-producing animals worldwide.

 

On the same day, Kemin AquaScience™ hosted a conference called "Update on shrimp microsporidian, Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei (EHP) as a component cause of white feces syndrome."

 

What would each business entity of Kemin bring to the table in terms of products, services and innovations for the livestock and feed industry?

 

Chris Nelson: At Kemin, we are committed to continuously developing campaigns and solutions that meet the market's and customers' ever-changing needs. Despite the pandemic, we have stepped up the development of innovations at our research centers to ensure we can timely cater to the market.

 

At VIV Asia 2023, Kemin highlighted several of its innovations, including a risk management programme based on vaccine technologies against transboundary and respiratory pathogens; Aquatria™, a Lysophospholipids-based nutrient absorption enhancer designed for aquatic animals; KEMZYME™ Protease, an enzyme solution; ENTEROSURE™, an intestinal health solution; and PRO-OXINE™ AH and OXINE™ AH, Kemin's new disinfectant solutions.

 

Please describe the global initiatives that Kemin introduced at VIV Asia. Would we see a significant involvement of partnership with external industry players and stakeholders outside the Kemin umbrella?

 

Indeed, Kemin promotes learning and knowledge sharing among colleagues, key opinion leaders, universities and our partners. In 2023, as in prior years, Kemin will continue to involve reputable opinion leaders and internal key subject matter experts to update the market on the latest trends and knowledge.

 

As such, at VIV Asia 2023, Kemin Biologics partnered with World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) experts to discuss the role of vaccination against avian influenza (of low pathogenic and high pathogenic types), a transboundary challenge that compromises poultry health, industry profitability, communities' development and food security worldwide.

 

Additionally, Kemin Biologics delivered its global educational series, where global experts addressed risk management through vaccination. These experts include Dr. Nadav Galon (OIE), Dr. Wael El Feil (MEVAC), and Dr. Maarten De Gussem (Vetworks).

 

We also invited Judy O'Keefe, a consultant who has 34 years of practical experience as a nutritionist in the poultry and stockfeed industries, and Koh Hui Meng, a feed mill operations consultant with over 50 years of working experience in the animal and aquatic feed milling industries, to share their experiences during the tradeshow.

 

As economies reopen worldwide with the lifting of COVID restrictions, how have Kemin's businesses adapted to the ‘returning norm' happening worldwide?

 

Chris Nelson: Kemin has adapted to the ‘returning norm' by implementing initiatives to improve workplace safety and crisis management. We have also explored new digital platforms to improve our internal processes as well as invest in our infrastructure.

 

At the same time, we anticipate the evolution of feeding and farming processes and provide solutions from which producers can benefit.

 

Kemin follows the pace of our partners worldwide by delivering agile solutions regarding process efficiency for timely supply, onsite technical services that ensure best practices and the continuous development of relevant innovations.

 

We are also continuing our momentum on raising awareness of protecting the immune health resilience of animals. We understand that prevention is the best response to mitigate global disease challenges.

 

In the context of vaccine technology, the pandemic brought into evidence the value of systematic vaccination as a critical intervention to achieve herd immunity in a susceptible population. This is a science-based concept learned from human medicine which is also implemented in veterinary medicine, with remarkable results across animal species in various geographies.

 

We also look at how the increasing trend of health-conscious consumers affects how producers and governments respond together with industry players. Hence, in our partnership with producers, we are responsible for providing end consumers with safe and healthy products.

 

Lastly, we look at the many severe environmental concerns that have arisen over the years globally, which brought to the forefront of people's attention the need for increased initiatives toward sustainability. Kemin understands that it also has a critical role in contributing more to sustainability by implementing projects that improve sustainability performance, reduce resource consumption and protect the environment.

 

Companies like Kemin have the ability to take on this critical journey and unite others to join the global efforts against climate change. We believe an ongoing commitment to sustainability is critical for healthy people, a healthy planet and a healthy business. We must all do our part today to create a better tomorrow.

 

- Terry Tan, eFeedLink

 

Visit Kemin at: www.kemin.com/na/en-us/home