Petnutrition, a premium petfood manufacturer, is establishing a new research and development laboratory in Malta that will also upgrade the petfood company's quality control processes.

The laboratory will be operated by a new company, Petnutrition R&D, and will be responsible for the analysis of the entire product range of wet and dry petfoods, supplements and oils.

According to managing director, Matthew Wismayer: “In the last weeks we started to export to Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Canary Islands. We have seen our revenues double in some markets and to maintain this momentum it is crucial that we have the highest quality control of all the products before they enter the market.

“A team of Maltese analysts will design and assess each product, and manage production lines issued by the factories. Samples from every batch will be tested in Malta before dispatch to customers. Previously, testing was carried out in laboratories overseas,” Wismayer said.

The company is also planning to launch new petfood packaging in September that prominently declares the nutritional content. Over the next five years, Petnutrition plans to consolidate its presence across Europe and to continue to build on its export network in other regions.