July 3, 2009
Alltech reiterates drive towards sustainability amid crisis
An eFeedLink Exclusive
The Malaysian leg of the 22nd Asia-Pacific Lecture Tour of Alltech in Sheraton Subang Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on June 24, 2009, brought in fresh insights to the feed and livestock industry on how to sustain a business in turbulent times like this and how to bring out the best in a company.
Alltech's Asia-Pacific tour over a two-week period gathered a total of 2,000 animal feed industry professionals. The lecture was centered on new technologies that can help producers overcome some of the challenges facing the agriculture industry today.
Company president and founder Dr. Pearse Lyons shared that "Alltech is not immune to crisis; so it has to respond to crisis. And one of the things we have been saying is that when you think of the word crisis, we should be aware of danger, but never forgetting to recognise the opportunity. " Lyons explained that for the first time in 29 years, Alltech saw around September of last year that profitability was slipping. "but six weeks later, our profitability was way back up. Not where it should have been, further up. My point is that we said stop, we said there's something happening and we have to rally our team around, we have to do things differently and the crisis has to bring the best out of us."
Lyons, addressing the crowd of participants, noted that for a business to remain strong, it always has to keep side with the customer - whether to create a new programme to help them, to help in training people, or to assist in marketing.
Also one of the speakers, Dr. Karl Dawson, director of Worldwide Research and representing Alltech's Research and Development team, brought excitement of nutrigenomics to audiences around the region, highlighting the effects nutrition can have on gene expression. "By understanding what is occurring at the gene level, we can tailor our programmes to ensure the best possible outcome for our animals."
Nutrigenomics is showing tremendous potential for animal production system." He explained the science behind Alltech's latest research efforts, including the rapid development in 52 days of EconomasE. "EconomasE and what we are learning with the gene chip is redefining vitamin E nutrition."
Dr. Alison Leary, Alltech Asia-Pacific Technical Manager, explained how in the face of continuing concerns over the availability and cost of traditional ingredients corn and soy, the power of solid state fermentation is enabling feedmillers and integrators to unlock the energy stored in fibre. She highlighted the ability to achieve diet flexibility and therefore assist with profitability.
Alltech, being present in 104 countries around the world, is looking at every single country for opportunities, Lyons pointed out.
Particularly in Asia, Max Purser, Southeast Asia general manager, said that "there are certain markets which would be only showing a small amount of growth this year. However, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia probably represent the biggest opportunities just purely from population standpoint." Purser added that "a lot of things are going on this year. One is to work closer and closer with the farmers, communicating with them. Using our solutions programmes, such as Alltech iSolutionsTM Programmes, an interactive bottom-line software, we can demonstrate where these efficiencies can take place in the farm and so that would be a major progress this year and next year."
Alltech started the tour in Tokyo, Japan on June 15, challenging the audience to be leaders in the industry - not followers - as they are faced with what Lyons calls the "sustainability crisis."
(from Left to Right) Steve Bourne, vice president Asia-Pacific,; Jules Taylor-Pickard, Global Mycosorb manager, ; Arturo Frio, technical sales manager and regional Bioplex Champion, Philippines; Hossan Mohammed Salim, regional winner of the undergraduate Young Scientist award; Pearse Lyons, president,; Karl Dawson, director of Worldwide Research, US; Richard Murphy, Research Laboratory coordinator, Ireland; Alison Leary, technical manager, Asia-Pacific.
