More than a century ago, on 28 April 1911, Hendrik Antonie de Heus founded his grain and flour trading company De Heus Graan- en Meelhandel in the small town of Barneveld in the Netherlands. 3 generations later, the family business had grown into a global player in the world of animal feed. This company is called Royal De Heus.

When taking a tour boat down the Co Chien River in Vinh Long in the Mekong Delta, it’s hard to overlook a new and neat factory with the name De Heus on its tower. This is one of the 17 De Heus feed mills in Vietnam, amongst over 100 feed mills located in 20 different countries.

De Heus and its international and local brands can be found in 75 other countries across the globe, from Europe to Asia and from South America to Africa.

With its far-reaching presence, De Heus aspires to contribute to the availability and accessibility of safe and healthy food worldwide and contribute to the development of the agriculture sector and local communities where they operate.

Johan Van Den Ban – General Director of De Heus Vietnam.

With this mission, De Heus stays close to the core business of animal nutrition and provides high-quality animal feed, including compound feed, concentrates, premixes, and special feed. Worldwide, De Heus products are delivered every day to livestock and aquaculture farmers – the producers of meat, fish, shrimp, milk and eggs.

In 2009, De Heus took the first step in Asia by acquiring a small feed mill with a production capacity of 30,000 tonnes in Binh Duong, a province in the South-East of Vietnam. With a combination of solid organic growth plans and strategic acquisitions, De Heus has grown to become a leading animal feed producer in Vietnam, with 17 factories and an annual volume of more than 3,000,000 tonnes of feed.

“We are proud of our long-lasting collaboration with independent Vietnamese farmers and their trust in our company. We commit to doing our best to actively contribute to the agricultural sector’s further development and professionalization”, said Johan van den Ban, CEO of De Heus Vietnam.

From the start, De Heus realized it could only play a meaningful role in Vietnam by focusing entirely on guaranteeing optimal quality, which is the foundation for improving farming results. Next to high-quality animal feed products that are supplied to the Vietnamese farmers, De Heus also provides livestock and aquaculture farmers with technical training in, for instance, bio-security, animal care, animal health, water and air management, and how to keep their livestock and aquaculture in the best possible condition. At De Heus, this targeted and supportive approach to the farmers is called the 'on-the-farm approach’.

Factory No.2 of De Heus in Vinh Long Province.

De Heus aims to promote productivity and further strengthen the professionalization of the animal protein value chain to provide Vietnamese consumers with safe, healthy, and tasty meat, eggs, fish, shrimp and dairy products that they deserve.

Therefore, De Heus leads various value chain initiatives, bringing together and facilitating cooperation between upstream and downstream chain partners. Initiating such partnerships also made it possible to strengthen the position of the small and medium-sized independent livestock and aquaculture farmers.

It is a common saying within De Heus: “We are only successful when the farmers are successful”. Together with the farmers, De Heus wants to find solutions for the challenges they encounter every day, and for this reason, innovation and sustainability are at the heart of the company’s operations to create the most added value for the animal protein chain and prepare the industry for the increasing future demand for food.

Being a top 10 global leader in the animal nutrition industry, De Heus commits to creating a more sustainable future in agriculture. The company has undertaken a series of strategic measures under the umbrella global sustainability program called “Responsible Feeding” that encompass a wide array of sustainable practices. Some key priorities of the group include CO2 reduction, responsible use of antibiotics, responsible sourcing of raw materials, diversity and inclusion, and circular economy.

A concrete example of this program is the MOU announcement where De Heus will invest in a 20MWp solar rooftop portfolio which will cover all of their factories and facilities in Vietnam with solar panels in 2023 and 2024.