Tjitze Smit

Title

Manager of pet food division

Company

Graintec

Futuristic concepts for the design of pet food facilities – Tjitze Smit, manager of the pet food division for Graintec, shares concepts of modern and future pet food plant design, along with a vision for how fast-developing technology will impact the process design and operation of the pet food facility. Pet food producing facilities of the future are not going to look like facilities today. Futuristic concepts demand innovative ideas and initiatives that incorporate new solutions for not only the facility design but also the production process, equipment and intelligent instrumentation, optimizing pet food production in terms of logistics, energy consumption and environmental considerations.

Smit graduated from Wageningen University in the Netherlands and holds a master of science in aquaculture. He has more than 30 years of experience in the international aquafeed and pet food industries. Smit started his career in his family’s pet food/animal feed business, then worked for Van Aarsen and Nutreco as a project manager responsible for the design and construction of various fish feed and animal feed plants. He joined Graintec in 2004.