Visionary Leadership in the Dynamic Industry!
In the vast domain of aquaculture, a pivotal industry for sustainable animal protein production, notable progress is underway in terms of innovation and process optimization. With a dedicated focus on improving fish health and overall quality, the industry is actively engaged in the development of specialized feeds and the adoption of environmentally friendly practices. Aquaculture’s global impact extends across diverse regions, addressing challenges and contributing to the growing demand for high-quality, sustainable food sources.
Leading the charge in this dynamic industry is the CEO, Hussien Mansour, a visionary executive with a profound understanding of the intricacies of aquafeed technology. As the key figure in the industry, Mansour’s role underscores the commitment to growth, sustainability, and the delivery of high-quality products. His leadership within the company has played a pivotal role in shaping its trajectory and contributing to the advancement of aquaculture practices worldwide.
At the helm of this industry leader, Aller Aqua is a company renowned for its commitment to excellence and innovation. With a strong global presence, Aller Aqua has become a key contributor to advancing aquaculture practices. Renowned for its dedication to sustainability and the development of cutting-edge feed solutions, Aller Aqua has significantly influenced the evolution of aquaculture on a global scale.
Let’s delve in to learn more:
Experienced Professional in the Extruded Feed Sector
Hussien Mansour is a partner at Aller Aqua Egypt and has held the position of CEO since 2011. Graduating in the year 2000, he embarked on a career in his family’s business, specializing in feed production through Extruder technology. With 23 years of experience in the extruded feed sector, he has demonstrated a deep commitment and extensive knowledge of aquafeed technology for various species.
Educated as a B.A. As an architecture engineer at Cairo University in 2002, Hussien Mansour’s expertise extends beyond his academic background. His longstanding commitment and vast experience have resulted in his active participation in numerous teams and delegations, representing the company or the country on both local and international platforms.
Navigating Aquafeed Innovation
Hussien Mansour, a key figure in the executive realm, is intricately woven into the fabric of a family business that has significantly impacted the aquafeed production landscape. Founded by his father, the visionary founder, the company envisioned establishing a production entity specializing in feed and Full-Fat Soya through Extrusion Technology. This vision crystallized into the inaugural Egyptian enterprise, emerging as the pioneer in producing Floating Aquafeed since the year 2000.
Mansour’s journey commenced with a deep-seated interest in the intricacies and artistry of Extrusion. Despite holding an educational background in Architecture Engineering, Mansour found himself drawn to the nuanced possibilities presented by the extrusion process, sparking a profound love for the machine’s capabilities.
Actively engaging in the company’s developmental trajectory, Mansour played a pivotal role in refining the production process. This encompassed a focus on cost efficiency and the introduction of innovative products such as shrimp, marine feeds, and pet food. In 2010, a strategic decision by his father to seek a partner aligned fortuitously with Henrik T. Halken, a Partner, VP, and CPO in Aller Aqua Group. This synchronicity coincided with Aller Aqua’s ambitious strategy to double production and sales through strategic investments and acquisitions.
Subsequent years witnessed transformative milestones, with the construction of a new factory in 2014 tripling production capacity. In 2017, the installation of the third production line underscored a commitment to innovation and growth.
Egypt’s global prominence as the 3rd largest producer of Tilapia and a top 10 contender in Aquaculture production positioned Aller Aqua Egypt as a vital hub in Africa and the Middle East. The synergy for growth was established through knowledge-sharing and the transfer of know-how, encompassing the esteemed values upheld by Aller Aqua. The result: Aller Aqua Egypt emerged as a key player, supplying high-quality Aquafeed infused with the latest technology and leveraging years of collective experience.
Elevating Aquaculture
In the realm of aquaculture, Hussien Mansour has played a pivotal role in establishing Aller Aqua Egypt as a beacon of environmentally conscious animal protein production. With a focus on sustainability, the company, under his leadership, achieved significant milestones. The installation of two state-of-the-art extrusion lines in 2015 and 2017 marked a leap forward, accompanied by the introduction of innovative products such as TAF™ (Temperature Adapted Feed), Anti Stress™, and Support Feed. These functional feeds have proven instrumental in assisting fish farmers, addressing challenges throughout the production cycle, and enhancing fish health and quality.
Notably, Aller Aqua Egypt received acclaim, winning the prestigious “Best Aquaculture Product in the Middle East” award from the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment in the UAE for two consecutive years, 2016 and 2017. The impact of starting production in Egypt reverberates in the aquaculture sector’s efficiency. Fish farmers have witnessed a remarkable transformation, reducing feed consumption from 3-6 kg per kilo of fish to 1.2-1.5 kg. This not only minimizes waste but also extends the use of water resources, contributing significantly to environmental preservation. The outcome is a twofold increase in fish production within the same resources, a crucial stride toward meeting the escalating demands of Egypt’s burgeoning population, growing by 2.5 million individuals annually.
Innovations and Impact
In the domain of aquaculture, sustainability takes center stage. Aller Aqua Egypt, under the leadership of Hussien Mansour, has pioneered environmentally conscious practices, establishing itself as a key player in the industry. With a focus on minimizing CO2 impact, the company has achieved significant milestones since its inception. Noteworthy accomplishments include the investment and installation of two state-of-the-art extrusion lines in 2015 and 2017, introducing innovative products such as TAF™ (Temperature Adapted Feed), Anti Stress™, and Support Feed.
These specialized feeds play a crucial role in supporting fish farmers in addressing challenges encountered during the production cycle. Aller Aqua Egypt’s commitment to excellence is further evident in the successful launch of new feed types, enhancing fish health and overall quality. The company’s dedication to innovation and quality has garnered recognition, winning the esteemed “Best Aquaculture Product in the Middle East” award from the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment in the UAE for two consecutive years, 2016 and 2017.
The impact of Aller Aqua Egypt extends beyond accolades, reshaping aquaculture practices in Egypt. Through strategic investments and advancements in technology, fish farmers have significantly increased efficiency, reducing feed consumption from 3-6 kg per kilo of fish to 1.2-1.5 kg. This not only minimizes waste but also extends the use of water resources, contributing to a positive environmental footprint. In an era where the Egyptian population grows by 2.5 million individuals annually, Aller Aqua Egypt’s contributions ensure the nation can sustainably produce healthy, high-quality food to meet the demands of its expanding populace.
Ensuring Quality and Flexibility
As a company, Aller Aqua Egypt is large enough to meet its customers’ needs and small enough to be flexible. This ensures that they can react quickly to their customer’s needs, which is essential when they strive not only to deliver fish feed but also to spar with and contribute to optimizing their customers’ businesses. Their experience and history are their guarantee to their customers that they know what they are talking about, that they keep their promises, and that they are right there – and that will still be the case in many years to come.
Quality assurance and quality control are integrated into all steps of the fish feed manufacturing process at Aller Aqua Egypt. This covers the complete value chain, right from the evaluation and approval of raw materials to the fish feed production process and all the way to the final quality of the farmed fish.
They have a constant focus on:
- HACCP and risk management
- Having the right suppliers for the right raw materials
- In-line monitoring and quality control of all raw materials and all produced feeds
- Traceability through all the value chain
The efficiency of their quality control system is continuously subject to external audits. Their feeds comply with national and EU legislation for feed production and are under the control of the national veterinary and feed authorities. Through these efforts, they guarantee their clients a healthy and safe feed, which helps achieve the best results.
Global Excellence in Aquaculture
Aller Aqua produces fish feed for freshwater and saltwater aquaculture. That is a brief presentation, but it doesn’t even come close to covering the entire story. Aller Aqua is a family-owned company with roots tracing back more than a thousand years. They have produced fish feed for more than 65 years, making them one of the world’s most experienced fish feed producers, delivering some of the best products on the market to their customers.
Today, Aller Aqua has factories in Denmark, Poland, Germany, Zambia, China, Serbia, and Egypt, and they export their products to more than 70 countries worldwide. They have a broad and professional product range consisting of feed for 30 species of fish. They understand the importance the right feed plays in their customers’ production, and therefore, their own professional development and research center in Germany, Aller Aqua Research, consistently works on optimizing, developing, and documenting the effect of their products. This ensures that their customers receive top-quality professional products at competitive prices – delivered on time.
FACTS ABOUT ALLER AQUA GROUP
– Danish family-owned group with headquarters in Christiansfeld, Denmark
– Produces fish feed for more than 70 countries worldwide from factories in Denmark, Poland, Germany, Egypt, China, Serbia, and Zambia
– The company employs a total of 300+ people
– Production capacity of > 300,000 tonnes
– Total yearly turnover in the region of >1 billion DKK
FACTS ABOUT ALLER AQUA EGYPT
– The largest producer of extruded fish feed in Egypt and Africa
– New state-of-the-art fish feed factory inaugurated in March 2015
– Focus on the domestic market and the Middle East
– Won the prize for the best product for aquaculture in the Middle East in March 2016 and March 2017
– The 3rd extruder line inaugurated in March 2017
– Production capacity >150,000 T/year.
Aller Aqua’s Journey Towards Excellence
At Aller Aqua, innovation is a focal point and involves both management and local R&D staff. Together with R&D, the Danish Headquarters tests and develops new feed types based on solid R&D data.
New raw materials are tested and evaluated before use to reduce the environmental impact and increase efficiency for the benefit of the fish farmer. Before Aller Aqua’s market entrance in Egypt, fish farmers fed their fish with low-value products, which created large outputs of undigested substances in the water, as well as problems with fish diseases.
Today, with new optimized types of feed, fish are healthier and grow faster, and water quality has improved. Aller Aqua’s Egyptian factory even offers so-called functional feeds, which support the natural immune system of the fish and make them more resistant to diseases. They introduce new product trends in the market like TAF™ (Temperature Adapted Feed), Anti Stress™ & Support Feed. These functional feeds help and support fish farmers in overcoming the challenges they face during the production cycle.
Aller Aqua’s market entrance has inspired the whole sector to look for better products to improve environmental standards and, at the same time, provide sustainable and healthy food. Quality, improved results, and a focus on sustainability are now in focus to a much larger extent than earlier.
Sustainable Innovation
At Aller Aqua, sustainability and knowledge (understood as a lack of nutritional scientific data compared to other animal protein production) are two significant challenges. As they work in many countries, local challenges differ from one to another. Aller Aqua foresees that its initiatives to overcome these challenges involve delivering six values in its products and solutions.
Aller Aqua’s main values form the foundation for supporting the aquaculture sector:
- Customer Focus: They listen to their customers to find the right solution. They use their knowledge and their colleagues to meet the customers on their terms.
- Flexibility: They are open to new ways of doing business together with their partners and customers. They promote cooperation in everything they do – with their partners, customers, and colleagues.
- Innovation: They actively work to adapt new ideas and experiences to the challenges facing them and their customers.
- Quality: Quality is a priority in everything they do.
- Knowledge sharing: They aim to inspire their colleagues, customers, and partners and enable them to succeed – they do this because they believe that if they succeed, Aller Aqua will too.
- Responsibility: They play an important role in society and take that responsibility seriously. They have an active dialogue with their local communities and listen to their situation – they help where they can.
All these activities are executed through seminars, technical support visits, and short courses by their technical and management team. Aller Aqua also launched the SUPPORT concept for tilapia, a new product for the Egyptian market. The Aller Aqua Support concept is a series of aquafeeds based on a blend of functional ingredients that promote growth and survival in fish as well as disease resistance and prevention. This is done by balancing the microbial community in the fish gut. Aller Aqua Egypt has also introduced Spring Edition for tilapia, a new functional feed specially designed to help support tilapia and enhance their ability to cope with the transition period from winter to summer.
Years ago, they developed AntiStress™ feed, a feed that won the prize for Best Product for Aquaculture. This feed helps to support the natural defense of the fish; it supports the immune system. Nile tilapia is popular with Egyptian fish farmers because of its affordability, tolerance to high-density production methods, faster growth rates, and resistance to disease.
The Egyptian aquaculture and seafood market shows rapid growth. Aller Aqua will always support and develop its products to serve fish farmers. As they always say, “Let’s Grow Together.
They are always performing benchmark trials to have continuous improvements.
Sustainable Growth
Aller Aqua is dedicated to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing specifically on goals 2, 8, 13, and 14. They aim to set an example and show the world that growth can be achieved sustainably.
For Egypt, it is of immense importance that they can produce their own food, and aquaculture is an excellent way to produce protein for human consumption with a small CO2 footprint. Aller Aqua Egypt has been at the forefront of developing the sector, making it more efficient and sustainable, and will continue to do so. They have raised the bar for aquaculture in Egypt.
Aller Aqua Egypt will support growth in a sustainable and transparent way. This is also done by labeling the CO2 equivalents, starting in the EU and looking into implementation in Egypt.
Leadership and Success
As an individual, it comes naturally to Hussien Mansour to communicate with his team to find the optimum solutions and bring the best results. Over the years, this has proven to be the overriding force of success, not only in Egypt but with everyone he interacts with. In all of this, what makes him proud is that recently, their efforts resulted in him being awarded the HRH Crown Prince Frederik’s Business Excellence Award. This is due to the results of their business model and how they chose to conduct their business with a focus on partnerships sustainable and conscious development.
Vision for Growth
The market in Egypt is growing alongside the population, which increases by 2.5 million people per year. Expecting once again to upscale the capacity, Hussien Mansour is looking into two-digit growth rates in the future. This is led by combining the Danish Aller Aqua Group’s know-how with local production methods based on their slogan: “Let’s Grow Together.” He has a dream of seeing Tilapia Fillets served on Egypt Air flights.
Leader’s Advice
Stay True & Focus on your dreams and hopes for the future. Built long-lasting relationships. Be authentic. Understand your business and listen to your customers and insights from colleagues. Be open to seeing opportunities. Take good care of your employees; they are your most valuable assets. Do What You Expect from others. By yourself, you can do a lot, but Together, you can do Everything.
