TONGCHUAN CITY, CHINA — AB Agri on July 19 announced it has opened its ninth feed mill in China, a plant in Tongchuan City in Shaanxi Province with an annual capacity of 240,000 tonnes.

The new 34,000-square-meter site becomes AB Agri China’s second largest facility and comprises separate production lines for swine and ruminant feeds. 

The Tongchuan mill is the latest in a significant investment program in China for Peterborough, England-based AB Agri. The company’s Chinese mills are now producing in excess of 1.7 million tonnes of compound feed equivalent.

“We are passionate about producing affordable, high quality and responsible food across the globe,” said José Nobre, chief executive officer of AB Agri. “The new mill increases our capacity and reliability across the supply chain and helps develop a sustainable future for the feed and food industry in China.”

The completion of construction was delayed by two months because of COVID-19 restrictions and bad weather.

“We are delighted and proud of the effort and passion the team demonstrated to complete this project with just a two-month delay, despite all the obstacles faced,” said Nie Kuo, managing director, AB Agri China. “As part of our responsible approach, production at the new site is free of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs), which is important given the widespread restrictions on their use and potential impact on human health antibiotic resistance.”

China is by far the largest producer of animal feed in the world. According to Alltech’s most recent annual feed survey, China produced 261 million tonnes of feed in 2021, up 8.9% from the previous year.

AB Agri last year began construction on a 1-million-tonne-per-year feed mill in eastern England. It will be AB Agri’s 11th mill in the UK.