“According to IFIF’s estimates, global compound feed production exceeded 1 billion tons per year. However, this represents the amount produced in the professional feed industry. In addition, it is stated that the amount of feed that is directly mixed and produced in farms reaches 300 million tons.”
By Derya Yıldız
Animal-based foods are among the most essential nutrients for millions of people around the world. Therefore, these valuable protein sources are one of the most important components of the food industry. Studies show that the demand for animal protein continues to rise around the world, including meat, milk and fish.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that the world will have to increase food production by more than 60 percent by 2050. Therefore, animal-based protein production is expected to increase along with this increase. According to the FAO, this increase will be around 1.7 percent per year between 2020 and 2050. In the same period, meat production is expected to increase by about 70 percent, aquaculture products by 90 percent, and dairy products by 55 percent. Supporting these increase estimates, the International Feed Industry Federation (IFIF) predicts that the production increase in poultry, pig, and beef will be doubled, and dairy and fish production will increase three times by 2050.
This rising demand for animal proteins shows that the highly important role of the compound feed sector will also increase. Because the feed industry is the most important element for sustainable growth in animal husbandry. Every increase in animal protein production makes it necessary to achieve a significant increase in feed production for sustainable animal production.
COMPOUND FEED PRODUCTION AND GROWTH
According to IFIF’s estimates, global compound feed production exceeded 1 billion tons per year. However, this represents the amount produced in the professional feed industry. In addition, it is stated that the amount of feed that is directly mixed and produced in farms reaches 300 million tons.
The 2021 Global Feed Survey, prepared by Alltech, provides much more up-to-date data. According to this survey, the amount of compound feed production carried out all over the world in 2019 was 1.176 billion tons. This amount reached 1.187 billion tons with an increase of 1 percent in 2020.
In 2019, in African swine fever (ASF) and the decline in swine feed production and Asia-Pacific, which ranks first in global feed production, led to a slight drop in global feed production compared to 2018. However, in 2020, production tended to rise again, albeit at a very low level.
SHARE OF REGIONS AND COUNTRIES IN WORLD FEED PRODUCTION
China, the USA, Brazil, India, Mexico, Spain, Russia, Japan, Germany, and Argentina are the top 10 countries in global compound feed production. The total production amount realized by these countries represents 63 percent of global feed production.
On a regional basis, Asia-Pacific region witnessed a 5.5 percent decline in total feed production due to Africa swine fever and a large drop in swine feed production in 2019. However, it caught the growth trend again in 2020 and continued to be in the first place on a global scale, producing 433.9 million tons with an increase of 2 percent. China, which is the largest feed producer in the world and the region, experienced significant losses in production in 2019 and fell to the second place. However, it took the lead again by increasing feed production by 5 percent to 240 million tons in 2020. In China’s production, broiler feed ranks first with 90.6 million tons. This is followed by pig feeds with 79.9 million tons, layer feeds with 34.1 million tons and aquaculture feeds with 22.2 million tons. India, the second major producer in the region, experienced a 5 percent decline in production unlike other countries. India, which produced 41.4 million tons in 2019, remained at 39.3 million tons in 2020. The biggest share in India’s feed production belongs to broiler feeds with 13.5 million tons. This is followed by 12.4 million tons of layer feeds and 10.9 million tons of dairy feeds. Production in Japan, which is the third-largest producer in the region and the eighth largest producer in the world, remained almost the same as the previous year. Layer feed production in the country was 6.4 million tons, pig feed production was 5.7 million tons, broiler feed production was 3.7 million tons.
Ranking second in global feed production, Europe experienced a 1 percent decrease in production in 2020 compared to the previous year. Spain with 34.8 million tons of production, Russia with 31.3 million tons of production and Germany with 24.9 million tons of production stand out as the top three countries in Europe. In Spain, pig feed ranks first among all feed groups with a production amount of 17.2 million tons. In other feed groups, the production is between 2 and 4 million tons. Pig feed is the primary feed group also produced in Russia. In the country, 11.8 million tons of pig feed production is followed by broiler feeds with 10.8 million tons. In Germany, another important country in the region, 9.4 million tons of pig feed production is followed by dairy feeds with 5.2 million tons and broiler feeds with 4.1 million tons.
North America, ranks third in global compound feed production and it grew by 1 percent in 2020 compared to the previous year. The USA, which is the leading producer in the region, took the first place in global production due to the decline in China in 2019. However, it fell to second place again with 215.9 million tons of production in 2020. In the country, around 62.9 million tons of beef feed, around 47.8 million tons of broiler feed, and 45.8 million tons of pig feed were produced.
Latin America grew by 4 percent in 2020 on a regional basis compared to the previous year and produced 176.5 million tons of feed. Brazil, the largest feed producer in the region and the third-largest in the world, was the country that achieved the largest increase in feed production (among the top 10) in 2020. Brazil, which achieved a 10 percent increase in compound feed production, increased its production from 70.4 million tons in 2019 to 77.6 million tons in 2020. Broiler feed production in the country was 34.4 million tons and pig feed production was 18.6 million tons. Mexico and Argentina follow Brazil in feed production in Latin America. While Mexico increased feed production by 4 percent, Argentina became the second country with the largest increase with 7 percent after Brazil. These three countries account for 78 percent of regional feed production.
Africa, in contrast to the 7.5 percent increase in 2019, had 2 percent fall in 2020. South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco and Algeria, as the top five producers of Africa, accounted for 78 percent of regional feed production. Broiler feed, layer feed and dairy feed make up almost half of the total feed production in the region.
Middle East falls far behind in animal feed production compared to other regions. While 25.3 million tons of feed was produced in the region in 2019, this rate decreased by 2 percent to 24.8 million tons in 2020. Iran and Saudi Arabia stand out as the most important producers in the region with their production of 9.4 and 7.2 million tons, respectively.
SHARE OF TYPES IN PRODUCTION
Considering the share of types in global feed production, poultry group seems to be in the first place. In the poultry group; the broiler feed production, which was 332.5 million tons in 2019, reached 334.5 million tons in 2020 with an increase of 1 percent. Broiler feeds’ share in global feed production is 28.2 percent.
Asia-Pacific region accounts for 143.6 million tons of this production. It is followed by Latin America with 62 million tons and by Europe with 54.8 million tons. Layer feed production was around 160 million tons for the last 2 years. The largest production area in this group, again, is Asia-Pacific with 77.9 million tons.
Pig feeds take the second place in feed production with a share of 24.1 percent. The Asia-Pacific region stands out again with 120.6 million tons of production in pig feed production, which was 286.3 million tons globally in 2020. Asia-Pacific region is followed by Europe with 72.9 million tons and by North America with 53.9 million tons in pig feed.
The shares of other types in global feed production in 2020 are as follows;
– dairy feed 10.8 percent, with a production of 128.8 million tons,
– beef feed 9.8 percent, with a production of 116.1 million tons,
– aquaculture feed 4.1 percent, with production of 49.3 million tons, and
– pet feed 2.5 percent, with 29.3 million tons of production.
When the 2019-2020 data is compared, it is noteworthy that the highest increase in production was seen in pet feeds (8 percent) and aquaculture feeds (3 percent).
COMPOUND FEED MILLS
The number of mills producing compound feed worldwide decreased by 3 percent in 2020. According to estimates, the total number of feed mills in the world, which was 29,345 in 2019, decreased to 28,414 in 2020.
Asia-Pacific region stands out in the number of mills as well as in feed production. It is estimated that there are 7,080 feed mills throughout the region. 3 thousand of them are in China and 1,698 of them are in India. This accounts for 66 percent of the number of mills in the region.
Europe hosts 6,948 feed mills. 2,014 of them are located in Spain, 721 in Turkey, and 417 in Italy. There are 293 feed mills in Germany, which is one of the most important feed producers in the region.
North America ranks third in the world in terms of the number of mills. There are 6,737 feed mills in the region and 6,232 of them are in the USA.
On a regional basis; North America is followed by Latin America with 4,425 mills, by Africa with 2,238 mills, and by Middle East with 792 mills. Brazil ranks first with 1,625 mills in the number of mills in Latin America on a country basis. It is followed by Argentina with 880 mills and Mexico with 581 mills. Majority of feed mills in Africa are located in Nigeria (792 mills), Algeria (435 mills), Tunisia (356 mills), Kenya (203 mills), and Egypt (100 mills). In the Middle East, more than 82 percent of the mills are located in Iran (652 mills).
Foot Note: The data discussed in this report consist of data obtained by institutions and organizations conducting research on the subject and express approximate estimates.
References:
• Alltech Global Feed Survey 2021, https://one.alltech.com/2021-global-feed-survey/
• Animal Feed Market by Product and Geography – Forecast and Analysis 2020-2024, Technavio, https://www.technavio.com/report/animal-feed-market-industry-analysis
• International Feed Industry Federation (IFIF), https://ifif.org/
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), http://www.fao.org/
