Specialist Nutrition, a Co Waterford-based animal feeds business, has secured a five-year deal valued at €135m to supply byproducts from a US biofuels plant as animal feed to dairy farmers in upstate New York.

The volumes involved in this deal are significant. Specialist Nutrition will source 500,000t of byproduct from a corn (maize) ethanol plant run by Attis Industries in the small town of Fulton in upstate New York. These byproducts include wet cake (commonly referred to as distiller’s grains) and corn oil syrup, which can be sold as animal feed.

The company says it will establish a base in Syracuse, New York, on the back of the deal and aims to sell these byproducts to local dairy farmers in the state as a high protein animal feed. New York is the fourth largest milk-producing state in the US with over 4,000 dairy farms in operation.

Specialist Nutrition is a subsidiary of the Arvum Group, which is a holding company owned by the Power family. Arvum employs over 40 people across its subsidiary companies, which include Seed Technology (SeedTech), Advanced Fertiliser and ProNutri, along with Specialist Nutrition.

Roy Power, CEO of the group, said the deal has been over a year in the making.

“Our team have spent a year working with the team at Attis, stepping them through our process to the point where they are confident in signing a five-year deal that changes the sustainable nature of their business,” said Power.