Circular farming solution in South Africa

Who is our client

DA supports Colsen International B.V., an innovative, family-owned Dutch SME, focusing on water technology, energy and environmental technology. Through their subsidiary Aquest Colsen Ltd in South Africa, they are developing a manure to energy solution to serve almost 50 chicken farms in the West Cape region in South Africa. 

Funding objective

With the co-financing of DA, FMO supports Colsen with the feasibility study and to prepare for the development of a manure-to-energy biogas plant for the West Cape region, where the plant would process manure from around 50 chicken farms in this region in South Africa. The biogas derived from the plant will then be sold back to these farms and used to heat their stables. The technology will be exported from the Netherlands. 

Why we fund this project?

DA funds the project to make one of the largest protein producers (chicken) in South Africa more sustainable and less dependent on unreliable services of the electricity utility and less dependent on LPG imports. The developed project would reduce the CO2 footprint of the chicken farms by producing green energy and clean fertilizer from a waste stream of chicken manure, which is currently spread out on land, polluting the soil and emitting CO2. By funding this project, we support a Dutch exporter in doing business in South Africa and bringing Dutch innovations to emerging markets.