Tokyo, Japan-based Marubeni Nisshin Feed Co., Ltd. – a 60-percent-owned subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Marubeni – announced in December 2020 its establishment of a wholly-owned subsidiary aquafeed company in Tianjin, China. It will be the first aquaculture feed manufacturer in China to be fully owned by a Japanese company, according to the company.
The new firm, founded in June 2019 and named Nisshin Marubeni (Tianjin) Feed Technology Co., Ltd., is expected to begin commercial operations this year. Satoshi Hirai will act as president and representative director.
In January 2016, the company signed a strategic cooperation contract with Tianjin Hiyou Jiayin Biotechnology Co. to jointly explore the Chinese market. The Chinese company has been successful with brine shrimp and has sales channels and stable customers in China to whom the new feed mill can sell.
Excluding feed for freshwater fish, such as carp, that make up most of the country’s production, demand from the Chinese marine fish feed market is now estimated at about one million metric tons (MT).
Nisshin Marubeni entered the Chinese marine fish feed market in 1990. In 2009, the company’s exports to China reached 1,300 metric tons. However, import restrictions due to radiation fears following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident and poor bilateral relations stemming from competing claims to sovereignty over the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands have hurt business.
It has also been disadvantaged by importing all of its feed from Japan, while other Japanese companies have built joint-venture feed mills. For Japanese exports, it takes time to clear customs and quarantine, and to apply for a new import license every time the formula is adjusted.
A competitor, Nagoya, Japan-based feed manufacturer Chubu Shiryo Co., Ltd. set up a joint venture called Santsu Chubu Feed (Shandong) Co., Ltd. with Chinese companies Weifang Sanhui Food Co. Ltd. and Three Links International Trading Co., Ltd. in 2013 to manufacture and sell fish feed and marine products, as well as provide technical guidance to fish farmers.
There are nine major feed producers in Japan. Nisshin Marubeni was Japan's second largest feed firm in 2019 (including all animal feeds, not restricted to aquaculture feeds), surpassed only by JA Zen-noh, the national farm cooperative. It was followed by Chubu Shiryo, Feed One, Nosan Corp. of the Mitsubishi Group, Nichiwa Sangyo, Itochu Feed Mills Co., Show Sangyo, and Toyohashi Feed Mills.
Photo courtesy of Marubeni
