We Had an Enjoyable Conversation with Sayın Kartal Kanat of Kartal Kimya

In our interview with Kartal Kanat, General Director of Kartal Kimya, we discussed the company's development process, its current position and its significant share in the feed additive sector.

Could you tell our readers about yourself, your education and professional background?

Since I have been involved in this business from childhood with my father, I completed my degree in Chemical Engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology in the United States between 1991 and 1995. Since the production department of the factory is the most important area that needs to be focused on, I wanted to develop myself in this field and completed my Industrial Engineering degree at International American University in 1996. After starting my career at Kartal Kimya as technical director of the production department, working in the heart of the operation, I completed my MBA at Yeditepe University to develop my management knowledge. I began my professional career at Kartal Kimya and continue as General Director of the company.

Could you tell us about Kartal Kimya's development processes from its founding to today?

Kartal Kimya was founded in 1985 by my father Yusuf Kanat. The founding purpose was to contribute to the country's economy through a domestic company. On this point, I would like to speak a bit about Yusuf Kanat's career. Yusuf Kanat began working in the feed additive sector in 1969 at Roche in the Laboratory department. In 1972, he established for the first time in Turkey the Veterinary Pharmaceuticals, Aroma and Feed Additive department within Roche and managed this department until his retirement in 1984. In 1985, aiming to use this accumulated knowledge to contribute to the development of Turkish livestock farming, he founded Kartal Kimya in Levent Automotive Industry. In 1990, as the rapidly growing company expanded its staff, he relocated the office department to Maslak. However, with the aim of improving European technologies and the quality of feed additives to foster the development of our livestock sector, Yusuf Kanat made a major investment in 1995 and rebuilt our production facility with the most advanced technology in Europe and Turkey in the Gebze Organized Industrial Zone, where it is located today. Shortly thereafter, evaluating the advantages of offices and production units working together, he moved the office to this site in 2000. With Kartal Kimya, Yusuf Kanat introduced Turkey for the first time to amino acids, antioxidants and enzymes. Today, as a reminder, we still preserve important sections of our first factory as a museum within our facility.

What are your products and what needs did your product diversity stem from?

Since its founding, it has become the most important player in the animal health and feed additive sector with its financial strength, production capacity, vision, entrepreneurial spirit and innovative products. With Turkey's largest and most technologically advanced production factory, it is the best in the Balkans and Middle East. At Kartal Kimya, our factory is built entirely by Bühler with state-of-the-art technology. It holds ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and FAMI-QS certifications with microdosing, product traceability, fully automatic packaging, kraft bags, and quality control laboratory systems. In Kartal Kimya's product range of feed additives there are: vitamin and mineral premixes for all animal species, water-soluble vitamin and mineral premixes, colorants, antioxidants and preservatives, prebiotics and probiotics, enzymes, toxin binders, antioxidants, amino acids, farm solution product groups, veterinary pharmaceutical premixes, phytotherapeutics and natural herbal premixes.

What stages are involved in producing high-quality premixes? How do you characterize the effects of premixes on animal health?

Kartal Kimya today has the most modern production facility in Gebze Organized Industrial Zone, with foundations laid in 1995, matching the best in Turkey and Europe. The physical reason why Kartal Kimya products are innovative and high quality is our production factory built by Bühler. Kartal Kimya manufactures with a fully automatic system. In addition to large and medium-sized silos containing vitamin and mineral raw materials, Kartal Kimya for the first time in Turkey has a microdosing unit within its operation, enabling us to measure weights of up to 200 grams in very precise vitamin and additive groups. Premixes are packaged with 100% homogenization without contamination at every stage from the weighing process to the packaging process and prepared for shipment. Our production facility and laboratory are always open to those who wish to visit. The fundamental goal of modern animal nutrition is to ensure that animals are fed with adequate, balanced and reliable feed and to produce reliable animal food for humans. For this purpose, feed additives and premixes are widely used in animal feed. In the past, feed additive was the term applied to substances other than natural feed and artificially produced nutrients added at low levels to rations for animal meat, milk, wool, hair, mohair and egg production. Subsequently, specialists in the field defined supplemented feed as feed enriched with vitamins, minerals, amino acids, protein extracts and nitrogen sources, supplemented with aroma correctives, appetite stimulants and herbal extracts to improve feed quality, containing antioxidants and anti-mold agents to prevent deterioration during production and storage stages, and prepared using binders, stabilizers, emulsifiers, anti-caking agents and similar substances as a requirement of technological applications in production stages, thereby defining supplemented feed varieties as compound feed. In our country, to produce more output from feed and use it efficiently, feed producers are increasingly using appropriate feed additives and premixes.

What activities do you conduct to monitor the quality standards of the products you produce?

To monitor the quality standards of the products we produce at Kartal Kimya, we conduct analyses in our own in-house laboratory. For quality control, in the Kartal Kimya laboratory, we test 6 times per 1,500 kg of each batch of products, and we retain a duplicate of each analyzed sample for one year. Samples are taken from each production to check conformity to label values, ensure undesired substances are below limits, and conduct vitamin stability tests and product homogenization tests to establish performance evaluation criteria. Each incoming raw material is analyzed for specification compliance, and the quality of products and raw materials is evaluated according to their standards. Why exactly are samples of your products stored for 1 year? What is the main purpose here? We keep them as witness samples to examine complaints from our customers and possible effects on animals.

What do you attribute your products' market share and quality to?

We are a company that has made it our mission to ensure customer satisfaction by producing healthy, reliable and high-quality products with our innovative approach and high-level technological infrastructure. Since 1985, we have been a company that guides the feed additive sector. The most important reason for this is that Yusuf Kanat has accumulated tremendous technical knowledge and experience regarding products and was among the first pioneers to introduce feed additives to Turkey. He has touched the careers of virtually everyone working at significant levels in the feed additive sector today. The fact that our production factory was built with technology that still has no equal in Turkey supports our high level of production quality. However, it must also be noted that our premixes are created through our specialized animal nutrition staff and years of accumulated experience. A high amount of one element can cause a deficiency of another element. Therefore, only a properly proportioned premix will provide positive results. In recent years, virtually all major global players branded in the feed additive sector have entered the market with their own headquarters in Turkey. Many companies have been sold to foreign brands, and some have come under the wings of these brands. Kartal Kimya today remains a company with entirely Turkish investment and has consistently ranked among the top 3 companies in the market for 32 years.

Which countries do you export your products to most and what factors do you consider when conducting exports?

Kartal Kimya manages all export operations from its Gebze headquarters. With our Kavimix brand, we have been actively exporting since 2010. Although the countries to which we export may change in some years due to political or personal reasons, we export to Eurasian countries. However, the region we work most intensively with is the Turkic Republics. What quality certifications do you hold? How do you define the importance of quality certifications for feed and food safety principles? The certifications we hold are ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and FAMI-QS. The purpose of these certifications is to ensure safe feed production without compromising quality by complying with HACCP and hygiene rules in a closed system without manual handling, taking measurements, reducing risks that could compromise the quality of feed additives and premixes entering the feed chain, and ensuring this maintains a high standard level.

What are your environmental policies for future generations?

Kartal Kimya Production Facility, through its sustainable waste management policies, environmentally conscious work and investments made in this area, has underscored the importance it places on the environment and sustainable living by receiving the "Environmentally Friendly Facility Award." Kartal Kimya, which holds ISO-14001 Environmental Management System Certification, ISO-9001, FAMI-QS, and Environmental Permission Certificate, controls its environmental impacts at every stage from the purchasing process to the products placed on the market. With its sustainable waste management policies implemented for environmental protection, the company primarily aims to reduce waste at its source and recovers waste collected separately at the source through appropriate methods to ensure proper disposal.

Could you tell us about your new projects and new technologies you aim to utilize?

Monitoring and implementing developing production technologies form the basis of our priority investment plan. We never say "we have the factory, we produce anyway." For example, if technology changes in packaging, we immediately adapt to the new one. This way, we can stand behind our word of "latest technology." Our laboratory equipment is another area of our investment. You can see our sensitivity to quality in our laboratory. We test all products we produce at Kartal Kimya for quality control in our own laboratory, testing 6 times per 1,500 kg of each batch of products. We also retain a duplicate of each analyzed sample for one year. For example, with the ICP-OES device we recently added to our laboratory, we analyze all elements and heavy metals contained in premixes and minerals at the ppb level. This year, we are focused on solution products. Global trends are developing toward reducing pharmaceutical use and feeding animals correctly and preventatively. For this reason, we have many studies aimed at preventing commonly encountered health issues through nutrition. For example, our Karbio brand is the first group of our solution products for farm animals. These are formulas we developed for special conditions frequently encountered in farm animals, such as foot diseases, heat stress, and transition period nutrition. Always presenting innovative products is an essential goal for our future.