Catalyst’s Midwest premix plant certified organic

Catalyst’s Midwest premix animal feed manufacturing facility has been certified as organic by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

Bigstock, smarnad
Bigstock, smarnad

Catalyst’s Midwest premix animal feed manufacturing facility has been certified as organic by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

The facility’s first organic product offering is a poultry feed for laying hens. Organic 18 Percent Layer Feed will be produced at one of the few Midwestern facilities that offer premix services and private-label organic services.

“We are expecting the same success in Iowa as we had when our Idaho mill started offering organic products,” said Jos Zamzow, chief operating officer of Dynamite Marketing, which owns the facility. “We started getting new customers for our organic chicken feed almost before the ink was dry on our certificate.”

Catalyst’s feed mill in Meridian, Idaho, was certified as organic in late 2016.

“Consumers are asking for organic versions of the products they already love. The impression is that organic implies quality. When you understand the record-keeping and attention to detail required to make organic products, you understand just how right they are,” Zamzow said.

Becoming certified organic requires careful documentation and tracking of every ingredient, Zamzow said.

“A lot of people think of organic certification as providing proof that food is chemical free, but it goes much further than that. We have to keep a paper trail documenting the entire operation,” he added.

Demand for organic premixes and feed additives in the region is high, but supply is low, said Dana Partridge, the head of Midwest operations.

“The market reality is that there are very few companies that offer organic premixes and feed additives in Iowa and the demand is very high. Many of the companies we have approached had given up on the idea of organic versions of their existing products because there just wasn’t anyone to make it for them,” Partridge said.

“All of the natural-minded feed consumers in this area had to choose, did they want local or did they want organic. Now they can have both,” Zamzow said.

Catalyst, formerly called Pharm-Tech, was established in the 1960s. Dynamite Marketing purchased Catalyst in 2008.

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