INTERVIEW FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE March 2022 55 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
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUxNjkxNQ==