With a total capacity of 12mio hatching eggs per year, the new facility, the first ‘Smart™ Hatchery’ to be commissioned in Japan, will incorporate eight SmartSetPro™ 4 setters, eight SmartSetPro™ 2 setters and 12 SmartHatchPro™ hatchers. The hatchery will be equipped with Adaptive Metabolic Feedback™ (AMF™), to automatically adjust incubation programmes to the time-sensitive needs of the growing layer chick embryos, and Energy Saving Modules™ (ESM™) to reduce the hatchery’s energy consumption.

Amuse Inc.’s new hatchery will also be the first in Japan to commission Pas Reform’s advanced SmartCenterPro™ hatchery information system: a web-based ‘Internet of Things’ approach to monitoring, managing and capturing data at every level of operations, from incubation and climate control to hatchery automation systems.

Pas Reform is further supporting the development of the new hatchery with engineering and technical services, including the installation of ventilation systems.

The project is, says Henk Markhorst, Pas Reform’s commercial director in Asia, the realisation of a long-term plan that has passed from father to sons. “Through generations of the Akagi family,” he says, “there has always been great care and precision in planning and creating a business of quality and substance, one step at a time.

“Having met Mr Norimoto and Yasuo Akagi some years ago, the commitment that they made to building a single-stage hatchery with Pas Reform is now being realised – and we look forward to responding with the same level of commitment to the success of the Amuse layer hatchery.”