The poultry industry will still be the leading specie in animal production. It is also very evident here in India. The fast development and improvement in genetics, farm management, health and nutrition drives the growth of poultry industry.

What are your best-known solutions/products/services?

Delacon is the pioneer and leading expert in phytogenics, and has been addressing complex challenges in animal nutrition for over 30 years. Our company develops plant-derived products on a sound scientific knowledge and technology for animal production. They are specially designed and composed of herbs, spices, other plants, and their extracts. Today phytogenics are considered one of the key solution to improve animal performance and secure animal resilience for safe and sustainable food production.

​The challenge in harnessing the power of phytogenic feed additives is finding the right combinations of plant-derived ingredients while fully exploiting the synergy among their active ingredients. The standardization process is a key factor to have consistent and proven efficacy.

Delacon was the first and currently only company obtaining two zootechnical registrations for its main phytogenic products in the pig and poultry feed sector in 2012 and 2017.  The zootechnical registration is seen as the scientific “gold standard” in the feed industry, as not only the safety but also the efficacy of the product has been officially confirmed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

Which industry sectors are your customers in, and which ones are growing fastest?

Today, we are covering a complete product range for the poultry, swine, ruminant, and aqua sectors. In addition, we do have some specialty ingredients and services.

What are your most recent product innovations?

At Delacon, we always thrive to meet todays and future challenges in animal nutrition. Our vision is implemented in all of our products: Using the power of nature. Our phytogenic solutions delivers efficient and safe solutions to maximize feed efficiency in animal production.

Therefore, we created our Performizer^® solution. It is a service which allows to optimize performance and feed cost with the application of the nutritional matrix.

The Performizer^® solution has been fine-tuned over the last ten years, through extended research, in-house and in cooperation with international institutions. Hence, we have developed an advanced nutritional matrix value. New trial data covers the whole production cycle of laying hens and broilers.

What are the major trends and developments affecting your category and your customers, and how are you responding?

The collaboration with our customers and business partners has always been a focal point for us. Therefore, we are increasing our interfaces by changing the business landscape, for example in the digitalization of our services.

Besides, we are also taking one step further by understanding not only the industry trends but also the changing consumer behaviour, food beliefs, purchasing power and influences of millennial consumers around the globe. In January 2020, Delacon commissioned already its fourth consumer survey. The outputs are worth to be considered from the entire feed-to-food-chain. The surveys were conducted in the US, Latin America and in Asia, and we could observe a common trend: Millennials care very much about the quality and source of their food (85 percent). Labeling, animal welfare and sustainable practices also count as very important.

Phytogenics are meeting the future trends in several ways: For the producers themselves in optimizing animal performance by supporting nutrient utilization, as well as for animals by supporting gut health and integrity. For the environment by supporting the reduction of greenhouse gases and reducing the environmental footprint. For the consumer by assuring feed and food safety and resonating with the beliefs of the consumers of today. 

What’s the latest news from your company?

Even though the year 2020 has been a challenging one for most of us, it has still been an exciting one for Delacon.

Just a few months ago, Delacon entered a new era by building a modern production facility in Austria to meet the future needs for phytogenics. The Delacon Hub is a gathering place for a global network of phytogenic experts. Heading for new innovations and solutions. Owing to an in-house laboratory and a state-of-the-art facility, an annual production capacity of 20,000 tons of phytogenics can be reached. 

To impact lives is one of our values. One initiative that we started in 2016, is the Green Egg Campaign. It aims to raise awareness on the benefits of egg consumption as a valuable and healthy protein source.

In 2019, we had the Green Egg Day in Bangalore, India. We have distributed eggs from a local layer farm using Delacon product and conducted activities promoting the goodness of eating eggs and its health benefits in two public schools for around 1500 students and participants together. We donated water container, textbooks and sports equipment to the school as simple gratitude by collaborating with us to make this campaign successful.

Could you please share your views on Poultry Industry for our readers?

The poultry industry will still be the leading specie in animal production. It is also very evident here in India. The fast development and improvement in genetics, farm management, health and nutrition drives the growth of poultry industry. And of course with increasing demand due to rising human population. The poultry business landscape is also changing, we will see more of consolidation, integration, digitalization and authomation for efficient production.