July 9, 2018

US Grains Council sets up centre in Tunisia to provide feed production training

The US Grains Council (USGC) and it partners are developing a regional training center which will provide training for feed production and  better animal nutrition in the feed sectors of Africa and the Middle East.

Known as the Regional Center for Feed Manufacturing for North Africa and the Middle East, the Tunisia-based facility will be supported by two grants amounting to a combined $1.9 million. It will address the challenges of Africa and the Middle East's compound feed production - said to be one of the lowest in the world, as well as being very costly due to inefficient production, lack of integration and a fragmented industry. 

The center will be located at the Tunisian National Institute for Agronomy (INAT), which has worked extensively with the USGC. As part of its programmes, around a dozen professionals from Tunisian will participate in a two-week training conducted by Iowa State University (ISU) and the Northern Crops Institute (NCI). This group is eventually expected to train up to 100 professionals in Tunisia's feed sector. 

For this enterprise, the USGC received grants from the US Department of State and US Department of Agriculture. Both grants will focus on extensive training programmes in Tunisia and expanding feed production training to 10 more countries in North and East Africa, and the Middle East, respectively.

According to Kurt Shultz, USGC's senior director of global strategies, the project will support the competiveness of US exporters who sell corn, dried distiller's grains and barley into the region.

The ISU/NCI programme will train a selected cohort of nutritionists, feed millers, and poultry, dairy, beef and aquaculture producers. In addition, the center will address the key issues of feed production and grain quality, including quality control, feed quality, grain storage and handling issues, Shultz said.

To enhance the facility's services, the USGC is getting bids for appropriate machineries such as equipment to measure feed quality, pellet durability and batch mixing.

"We are trying to replicate some of the tests you would have at a physical feed mill to ensure the quality of the feed," Shultz added.