Belgian animal feed industry has committed to a sustainable feed production for many years. Together with its members, BFA has already undertaken several initiatives in this respect. With its Sustainability Charter published in September 2020, BFA intends to take even a step further and defined 12 objectives to be met by 2030. The Belgian animal feed sector strives to reduce the production of antibiotic-medicated feed to 0%. Also, the sector committed to a 13% reduction of methane emissions by 2025 by applying specific feed measures.
Belgium is among the largest feed producers in Europe and produces over 7 million tons of feed annually. Katrien D’hooghe, Managing Director of the Belgian Feed Association (BFA), which represents 95 percent of the feed manufacturers in the country, says that the feed industry represents a turnover of 4.7 billion Euros. However, the Belgian feed industry, which has had to deal with many problems, especially due to outbreaks in the last few years, continues to feel the impact of African swine fever (ASF) on pork exports, even though it has left some problems behind.
Reminding that Belgium recovered its ASF-free status at the end of 2020, D’hooghe adds that despite this, pork exports to China, which is an important market, still cannot be made, and that this puts pressure on feed prices.
These are a few notes from our interview with Mrs. Katrien D’hooghe. You can find many interesting topics in our interview about the feed industry in Belgium, the trends in the country as well as the trends in the world.
Mrs. D’hooghe, first of all, can you introduce BFA to us? What are the aims of BFA, who are its members, and what is the role of BFA in the feed industry? What portion of the Belgian feed industry do your members represent?
The Belgian Feed Association (BFA) and its members – the Belgian animal feed producers – strive to deliver products that contribute to a greener, more sustainable and safer feed and food production. Our mission is to look after the interests of our members and to strive for the general social acceptance of sustainable animal feed production. BFA has 135 members, of which 111 have their headquarters in Flanders, 14 have their headquarters in Wallonia and 10 in the Netherlands. BFA represents more than 95% of the Belgian animal feed production.
Could you give some information about the Belgian feed industry? How many feed producers are there in your country and what is their average annual production? At industrial scale production, feeds for which animal species do come to the fore?
The BFA members annually produce over 7 million tons, thus ranking 8th in Europe. The Belgian feed sector represents a turnover of 4.7 billion Euros which corresponds to 10% of the total food industry. Around 5% of our members have an annual production of over 200,000 tons. Roughly 75% of our members have an annual production of less than 50,000 tons. Pig feed accounts for approximately half of the production. Poultry feed and cattle feed represent 18% and 23% respectively.
What can you say about the size and growth potential of the compound animal feed market in Belgium? What is the role and place of the Belgian feed industry in the global and EU market, especially in terms of production and exports?
The majority of the animal feed is destined for Belgium. More specifically, 95% of the pig feed and over 80% of the poultry and cattle feed is sold in Belgium. The situation is reversed for “other” feed including feed for pigeons, horses, rabbits, goats and petfood (60% of which is exported) and for premixtures and additives (70% of which is exported). With regard to the country of destination, Belgium mainly imports and exports to its neighbouring countries.
In recent years, outbreaks such as Covid-19 pandemic, African swine fever (ASF) and bird flu have seriously affected the representatives of the animal nutrition industry. What is the situation in your country? How did all these outbreaks affect the Belgian feed industry, what has happened and is happening in your country?
With regard to the production, ASF and avian influenza decreased the production significantly in 2019. In 2020, production recovered despite the Covid-19 outbreak (+ 5.7% compared to 2019). On the other hand, 2020 was a difficult year with logistical challenges and reduced margins. Belgium recovered the ASF-free status at the end of 2020, but export of pig meat remained very difficult. The Chinese market, for example, still hasn’t been reopened for Belgian pig meat. Hence, the Belgium pig farmers received very low prices for their products, putting pressure on feed production as well.
In 2021, the continued rise in price for raw materials and energy put even more pressure on the margins. The total production remained almost stable in 2021 (compared to 2020), but a decline in pig feed (more specifically feed for piglets and sows) started in the second half of the year due to the crisis in the pig breeding industry. It is expected that this decline will continue in the upcoming months. How the situation will develop over the coming years depends also on the discussions around the emission of ammonia. These emissions have to be reduced, but it remains to be decided which measures will be accepted (reduction of protein content of feed, less animals, technical innovations, etc.).
In addition to above, there is a crisis situation in pig breeding industry of your country due to the cost/price balance. What is the importance of pig farming industry for Belgium? What are the problems experienced in this sector and how do these problems affect your business and your country?
The crisis in in the pig breeding industry has different causes. We obviously suffered from the outbreak of ASF in 2018. Belgium could no longer export to China while countries such as Denmark and Spain – where pig production increased significantly over the last couple of years – still could, made the situation worse. With China lowering the import of EU pig meat – including from Denmark and Spain – and the outbreak of ASF in Germany, there is currently too much pig meat on the EU market. Together with very high prices for raw materials and hence for feed, this leads to a real storm for the pig farming industry. With pig feed accounting for half of the total Belgian feed production, the problems at the level of pig production extend to the feed sector as well.
The global animal nutrition industry is also at the center of a very busy agenda, such as antibiotic-free production, sustainability, environmental footprint, carbon emissions, alternative proteins, feed safety and animal welfare. How do all these agendas affect the feed industry in Belgium? Which of these issues are particularly at the forefront in the agenda of Belgian feed industry?
The Belgian animal feed sector has committed to a sustainable feed production for many years. Together with its members, BFA has already undertaken several initiatives in this respect. With its Sustainability Charter published in September 2020, BFA intends to take even a step further and defined 12 objectives to be met by 2030. The Belgian animal feed sector strives to reduce the production of antibiotic-medicated feed to 0%. Also, the sector committed to a 13% reduction of methane emissions by 2025 by applying specific feed measures (e.g. 3-NOP, nitrate as electron receptor, extruded linseed, rapeseed meal and brewers’ grain). BFA will offer its members training on life cycle analyses (LCA) to be able to evaluate the impact of their raw materials, refine their approach and reduce the ecological footprint. BFA and the Flemish government published the Flemish Protein Strategy aiming to reduce the import of soy and to diversify the use of alternative protein sources. Besides, BFA maps out the net contribution of Belgian livestock farming to the supply of proteins to humans. As a last example, the sector wants to contribute to the circular economy by increasing the share of co-products used in animal feed. By 2030, 50% of the raw materials used in the Belgian animal feed industry will be co-products of the food and biofuel industries.
In the context of food safety, BFA developed a sectoral sampling plan with the aim of guaranteeing high-quality animal feeds. Samples are taken at three levels: (1) at the raw material suppliers and at the compound feed manufacturers both (2) before and (3) after the mixing process.
When it comes to animal welfare, BFA is one of the founding members of Belpork, the Belgian quality system for pig production. In 2021, Belpork developed a specific module around animal welfare. This animal welfare module builds on BePork, the generic quality system that applies as a market access condition for the pig sector and that was launched on 1 January 2021.
The animal welfare module is in line with systems such as “Beter Leven Keurmerk” in The Netherlands and “Initiative Tierwohl” in Germany. Companies that have been inspected according to the new animal welfare module will be at a similar international level to the renowned Dutch and German quality marks.
What would you like to comment about BFA’s approach to the problems experienced in the industry, suggestions for solutions or its efforts to solve these problems?
The animal feed sector has already shown its resilience multiple times. In the coming years, more changes are in store. BFA opts for a proactive policy, in which we look for solutions instead of seeing barriers. We therefore continuously communicate what we do and why we do it with our various stakeholders, i.e., the other actors in the agri-food chain, the various government and European organizations.
Last but not least, can we talk about feed prices? Feed prices have recently become a major problem for farmers in many parts of the world. We know that there are problems with feed prices in your country as well. What were the factors that most affected the increase in feed prices in your country? How do price increases affect the feed and livestock industry?
Prices for almost all raw materials have risen spectacularly since September 2020: wheat, corn, barley, soy meal, linseed, rapeseed meal, beet pulp, vitamins and minerals. This has various reasons, including disappointing harvests, high energy prices, a strong dollar and protectionist measures (e.g. export taxes). Feed companies have so far and are still buffering part of this price increase, but further increases in raw material prices will undoubtedly lead to further increases in feed prices. This puts the profitability of the livestock farmers under heavy pressure. Fortunately, for a number of animal groups (dairy cattle, beef cattle and poultry), there are also better prices for the end products than about one or two years ago. The greatest pressure is currently in the pig sector. The prices of piglets and fattening pigs remain really low. For every 10-Euro increase per ton of pig feed, the profitability decreases by about 3 cents per kilo of live pig. This is leading to the biggest crisis in Belgian pig farming this century.
What could producers face in terms of prices in the upcoming period and are there ways to reduce feed costs/prices?
We do not foresee a decrease in the prices of raw materials or energy in the near future. Process optimization and energy efficiency (another objective included in the BFA Sustainability Charter) could be alternative ways to reduce the feed costs/prices. Geopolitical influences (e.g. the situation Russia/Ukraine) could also heavily affect the prices in the upcoming period.
And, any message for the industry or anything else that you would like to add?
Together with its members, BFA aims to provide products that contribute to more sustainable and safer feed and food production. To this end, the feed sector wants to make efforts. However, we cannot do this alone. A fair price for local products of high quality is crucial to properly compensate farmers for the efforts they make. The retail sector and the consumer are therefore indispensable links for a more sustainable and locally anchored agricultural sector and all adjoining sectors.
About Katrien D’hooghe
Bioengineer by degree, Katrien worked from 2005 to 2012 at BCZ as Regulatory Affairs Manager, responsible for the self-checking guide for the dairy sector. At that time, she also became a Board Member at Ovocom, the platform for the self-checking guide and the FCA (Feed Chain Alliance) standard, formerly GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices), before taking over as Director between 2012 and January 2018. After working several years with Yvan Dejaegher, Director of BFA (at the time Bemefa), Katrien succeeded Yvan as Managing Director of BFA in May 2019.
