30 years of growing together

What started as water preservation studies, turned into aquaculture studies, and eventually brought Jacek Juchniewicz to a now 30-year long partnership with Aller Aqua and a life revolving around fish and fish feed.
Jacek is the CEO of Aller Aqua Polska, and this year, we celebrate his successful journey in aquaculture, as a great business partner and a dear friend. 

What turned out to be a successful partnership and friendship, started in 1990 when Jacek Juchniewicz, Hans Erik Bylling (CEO and owner) and Henrik T. Halken (at the time a student, but now holds the position of Group Vice President) met each other for the first time at an aquaculture training conference in Denmark. Right after the conference, Jacek and Henrik rolled up their sleeves and started to arrange the first feed orders. The cooperation between Jacek’s business in Poland and Aller Aqua in Denmark officially began in 1991. Within three years Aller Aqua Polska managed to become the market leaders in fish feed in Poland, and thereafter create the official entities in the country.

In this interview, Jacek shares some of the greatest achievements that made this contribution to Polish aquaculture outstanding. Ever since he was a young man, Jacek was enthusiastic about the aquaculture industry. He combined his technical knowledge and passion and started a fish farm. Jacek saw potential in this industry and realized that there was a rising demand. He extended his involvement in the aquaculture industry by taking a significant step and ordering the first 24 tons of fish feed from Aller Aqua, to supply the Polish market.

Jacek reminisces some of the good times, and remembers the challenges created by the political factors down to the lack of technology and communication. ''It was hard,’’ says Jacek ''Every Monday, I would wait by my friends’ phone for hours to connect with Denmark’’. The technology was not there at the time, but the strong dedication helped Jacek grow the business into something bigger than anticipated. ''What started as 24-tons of fish feed, was multiplied the next year, and then the next year again,’’ Jacek says smiling ‘’finally we decided to build the joint venture factory in Poland in 2001’’. 

Jacek started organizing meetings, and conferences in Europe, to exchange knowledge and information with other industry experts and educating new fish farmers. This remarkable work, transferring the know-how to the Polish farmers, has created enormous development in the Polish market over the years. The impact of Jacek and his vision has today shaped a mature aquaculture industry in the Polish market. ''I would go so far as to say that Jacek has changed the aquaculture industry in Poland to a very successful one,’’ says Henrik. Jacek’s approach and foresight have done Aller Aqua Polska well. Innovation has always been in Aller Aqua’s DNA. The company’s dedication to improving the fish feed efficiency and solutions in the aquaculture industry has continuously intensified to help the industry grow.

Today, Aller Aqua Polska hosts many local and international events to share knowledge and know-how in the industry like the Forum Allerum seminars or the world’s biggest Sturgeon conference, Sturgeon International, every second year in November.

The production facility of Aller Aqua Polska was built in 2001 and is situated in the city of Golub-Dobrzyń, supplying the Easter-European & Central Asian markets with high-quality fish feed. The factory has a production capacity of approximately 45.000 tons of fish feed per year.

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