INTERVIEW FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE August 2024 63 pigs, cows and poultry (55-60 companies). These companies account for about 95% of the whole feed production in the Netherlands. With all our members, we cover almost 100% of the feed production in our country, which makes us a good representative for the feed sector. What is the total compound feed production in the Netherlands? What is the share of this production amount in the total compound feed production of the European Union? According to the data of FEFAC, the total compound feed production in Europe is around 150 million tonnes. The share of the Dutch feed industry in this production is about 12.5 million tonnes. When it comes to numbers, we cannot say that we are the biggest producer in Europe, but I can say that we have a very efficient industry. Because more than 50% of all raw materials used in feed in the Netherlands are co-products. This is a serious efficiency factor in resource utilization. The European livestock and feed industry has had to deal with many challenges in recent years: The Covid-19 pandemic, animal diseases such as ASF and avian influenza, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, increasing legal legislations around sustainability. How do you evaluate all these agenda topics? Our industry has been severely affected by all these processes. In particular, I believe that the Covid-19 pandemic was a wake-up call. Covid taught us how to deal with epidemic diseases, how to prevent them, antibiotic resistance and the link between the use of products in animal keeping and such diseases. The wars in Ukraine and Israel have had serious international consequences. In particular, becoming less dependent on others has been one of the main topics that came to the forefront during this period and has been on the agenda of Europe and many other countries around the world. Today, all continents are talking about their own food and feed security. But even all these developments have not changed the idea that we need to work on climate change goals. Climate change is a very clear reality and now, everyone knows it. Obviously, we need to take care of our environment and nature, but we also need to take care of food. Especially after we have seen that food production is an instrument in wars... I think all this has led to a change on the European level. We have the new European Commission coming up. As we can see from the election results, this Commission is no longer just focusing on climate and environment. It is also setting goals, naming them and giving instruments to achieve them. So that both markets and society can take time to find the solutions that are needed. I think this is the new agenda. Especially after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, there were serious problems in access to feed raw materials, which was reflected in feed prices. What would you like to say about self-sufficiency and feed prices? After the start of the war in Ukraine on February 22nd, feed prices went up very fast per day, or even per hour. It was really crazy. I think the price of 100 kilograms of feed went up by 25% to 50%. In the following months, the prices stabilized again, but they are still higher than the feed prices before the war started. But the war is not the only reason for these high prices. This has a lot to do with raw material positions in feed production and the energy sector using more co-products. In addition, while in some countries,
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