Celebrating 61 Years of Kemin Since 1961

Dive into the First 61 Years of Our Story

Advancing science, expanding to six continents, creating community around the globe—Kemin has done a lot in just over six decades. Follow the timeline to see just how far we’ve come since 1961.

• 1961 – R.W. and Mary Nelson founded Kemin Industries—then known as Chemical Industries—to provide feed additives to the Midwest agriculture and animal production markets, later expanding to provide animal nutrition and health products on six continents. 

• 1965 – Launched two of the U.S. agriculture industry’s first feed antioxidants.

• 1967 – Established worldwide headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.

• 1970 – Established regional headquarters for Europe, Middle East and North Africa in Belgium.

• 1983 – Developed natural pigmenter extracted from marigolds to replace artificial yellow coloring in egg yolks.

• 1983 – Developed world’s most widely sold mold inhibitor for animal feed.

• 1988 – Established regional headquarters for Asia-Pacific region in Singapore. 

• 1992 – Developed a liquid antimicrobial that transformed how bakery and tortilla products are kept fresh. 

• 1995 – Discovered the benefits of lutein, found in marigolds, for human eye health and began producing the first-of-its-kind natural ingredient for vision supplements in the global market. 

• 1995 – Formed Kemin Human Nutrition and Health business unit to provide ingredients for dietary and nutritional supplements. 

• 1996 – Established regional headquarters for South Asia in India. 

• 1997 – Began growing proprietary rosemary with high level of carnosic acid, extracted to use in pet food products to protect against flavor and color loss. 

• 2000 – Formed Kemin Nutrisurance, the pet food and rendering technologies business unit, to serve the fast-growing pet food industry. 

• 2000 – Established regional headquarters in China. 

• 2004 – Formed Kemin Food Ingredients, which became three regional Kemin Food Technologies business units, to serve the food and beverage markets. 

• 2004 – Established regional headquarters for South America in Brazil. 

• 2014 – Established regional headquarters for Sub-Saharan Africa in South Africa.

• 2014 – Became first company and largest producer in the world to have its proprietary rosemary Certified Sustainably Grown by SCS Global Services.

• 2015 – Formed the Kemin Crop Technologies initiative, which grew into a business unit serving commercial specialty crop growers in the U.S.  

• 2017 – Achieved global vision to touch half the world’s population (3.8 billion people) every day with Kemin products and services by 2019—two years earlier than planned.

• 2018 – Acquired Garmon Chemicals, a chemical solutions company for the denim and apparel industry, and formed Kemin Textile Auxiliaries business unit, based in San Marino.

• 2018 – Formed Kemin AquaScience™ business unit to serve the aquaculture industry.

• 2019 – Launched new company logo and vision to sustainably transform the quality of life every day for 80% of the world with our products and services by 2042. 

• 2020 – Continued partnership with the United Nations' World Food Programme, Nobel Peace Prize recipient and the world's largest humanitarian organization, which impacted more than 115 million lives in 84 countries in 2020.

• 2021 – Announced global sustainability vision to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

• 2021 – Became majority shareholder in Egypt-based animal vaccine manufacturer MEVAC to expand its global reach and form the Kemin Biologics business unit.

• 2021 – Acquired antimicrobial technology company Bio-Cide International to form the Kemin Bio Solutions business unit, which encompasses Kemin’s key enzymes and antioxidants for biofuels and Bio-Cide’s solutions to disinfect and sanitize equipment for food processing and water treatment applications. 

 

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