OUR HISTORY

1950s: Our Beginnings
 
PIERRE J PETROU and CELIA MEILAN founded Marine and Animal By-Products Inc. (‘MAPCO’) to trade fishmeal and feather meal, taking office space in the Woolworth Building, New York City, in 1955. By year-end, the Company had expanded and opened an office in Santiago, Chile.

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1960s: Our Initial Public Offering
 
In 1962, the Company changed its name to International Proteins Corporation ("IPC") and went public. Offices are opened in Panama and Peru, and the Company opens its first terminal warehouse in Bayonne, New Jersey. The International Trading Division was established as Animalfeeds International Corporation. During this, the Company experienced explosive growth, amassing six fishmeal plants and a fleet of sixty-eight fishing boats, a freezer, a cannery, and a shipyard in Peru, along with a plant and shipyard in Panama. Terminal warehouses are acquired in Baltimore, Maryland, Morehead City, North Carolina, and Port Arthur, Texas. Animalfeeds' corporate headquarters has been relocated to New Jersey. In December 1969, the Company was listed on the American Stock Exchange under the ticker PRO.

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1970s: After Peru nationalized the fishing industry, we moved to Chile.
 
After the Company suffers a tremendous setback in Peru when its fishmeal plants and fleet are nationalized, the Company furthers its reputation for innovation by establishing shrimp ponds, a hatchery, laboratory, and feed mill in Ecuador to supplement its shrimp fleet. The company signed an agreement with Corpesca to distribute Chilean fishmeal in the United States through 6 terminals located in the main consumption areas. 

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1980s: Company Privatization
 
In 1989, the Fishmeal and Fishoil business was privatized by its founders when the publicly listed stock and related aquaculture and agribusiness units were sold.

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1990s: Change of Ownership

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In 1993, the Company's co-founder, Pierre J. Petrou, passed away, and key managers took an equity stake in the Company. In 1998, the IPC name was sold, and the Company name reverted to Animalfeeds. Trading offices in Peru and Chile were enlarged, and operations in Panama were augmented with an expanded fleet and the construction of a new distribution terminal to capitalize on the growth of container freight service to Asia and Europe.

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In the 2000s, Globalization trends and Free Trade Agreements brought new markets.

We expanded our business into new markets in Asia. A strong association with distributors in China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Japan, markets that we are now able to service with newly opened container services that softened the dangerous goods clause that historically limited the transportation of fishmeal.

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2010s: International recognition for our co-founder

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In 2015, our co-founder Celia Meilan received recognition at the IFFO’s annual conference in Berlin for a lifetime achievement within the marine feed industry. Ms. Meilan passed away at the age of 99 in 2019, afterhaving dedicated most of her life to our business.

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2020s:  Consolidation of sustainable certifications

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Our company’s main driver is to keep achieving credentials to ensure we run a sustainable and environmentally-friendly business for the future.

​In Panama, we achieved the Responsibly-Sourced (RS) certification for small pelagic fisheries from MarinTrust (UK) and helped implement the fishing regulations to achieve the maximum sustainable scores with Fishsource. Our operations are also certified as Good Manufacturing Process Plus (GMP+).​

In the United States, our terminal operations are FDA approved and also enjoy the audited accreditation of the main petfood manufacturers in the US.