The New Hope Group, a Chinese animal husbandry, animal feed and meat products manufacturer, has established its first local animal feed plant in Gauteng. This is its second African subsidiary, the other being in Egypt.
With an initial investment value of just over R200 million, pilot production started at the end of last year. The animal feed plant commenced full production this year, with all the necessary regulatory and environmental controls required in place. It has also identified farmers for its supply chain and selected suppliers and partners to support operations.
The first five FAW trucks have already started to distribute the animal feed products
The company’s first five FAW trucks have already started to distribute the animal feed products. The FAW-only fleet consists of three FAW 28.380FT bulk tanker units, one FAW 28.330FL 14-ton freight carrier and one FAW 15.180FL 8-ton freight carrier. The larger trucks have been fitted with bulk tankers to carry the 20-ton and 30-ton payloads, while the smaller units will service the bagged (50kg each) feed distribution.
“For now the vehicles will run within a 150km radius from our plant in Gauteng, but will on occasion also run supplies to Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland. As our feed production volumes increase towards reaching our full capacity of 200 000 tons per annum, our fleet will grow together with our distribution radius – probably up to 400km,” says Yang Zhao, CEO of New Hope South Africa.
Our greatest considerations when choosing FAW trucks were reliability and uptime, reasonable cost of ownership and an understanding that we will be a customer with high expectations. However, having said this, we demand from FAW Trucks SA no more than we expect of ourselves – after all, we work and live by similar goals, namely to provide quality products at an affordable price, with superior aftersales service and support.
The New Hope Group is headquartered in Beijing and has fully-owned subsidiaries on four continents and in 20 countries across the globe. In 2014 the worldwide group collectively sold 15 million tons of animal feed.
South Africa was chosen because the country offered great infrastructure
Zhao points out that South Africa was chosen because the country offered great infrastructure, a stable political environment and the opportunity for doing fair business while following the strict ethical standards demanded by its China-group headquarters.
Fair trade practices and excellent business cooperation between China and South Africa have been very evident
Furthermore, the fair trade practices and excellent business cooperation between China and South Africa have been very evident from the numerous Chinese giants that have established themselves in South Africa, like FAW Vehicle Manufacturers South Africa, which chose to situate their plant in Coega, near Port Elizabeth.
New Hope SA will be providing the most affordable, high-quality animal feed to South African livestock farmers, with assurances of livestock growth and animal health equivalent to any of the better established brands.