Chick Olsson has built his animal nutrition business selling salt and molasses blocks to dairy farmers in the Australian outback, but increasingly the agribusiness entrepreneur is targeting the livestock owners of south-east Asia.
“It’s the fastest-growing region in the world . . . These are wonderful nations on our doorstep but we all still think about Europe and the old world,” said Olsson, whose company 4 Season set up a factory two years ago in the historic city of Luang Prabang in Laos to make animal feed.
Last month, 4 Season opened another factory in Thailand. The opportunity presented by the region is huge, he said. “They’ve got a hunger for beef and need more protein for their kids,” he added, pointing to the $28bn school food programme in Indonesia, south-east Asia’s largest economy.