Record growth in EU compound feed
In 2007, compound feed production for the EU-27 reached 149.8 mln tonnes, which is 3.4% higher than for 2006, according to Fefac data. This is the highest annual growth rate registered in almost 20 years.
The key factor that influenced the compound feed market was the dramatic price increase for all key feed materials, with two main consequences: 1) the high cereal prices encouraged farmers to put their cereals on the market rather than using them on the farm, and 2) livestock producers facing a huge increase in feed costs – which they could not pass on to consumers of animal products – turned to use the most efficient feed, i.e. industrial compound feed.
Poultry feed increases
In terms of poultry feed the market share of industrial compound feed vs. home mixing is much higher than in pig feed. This explains why the evolution of compound feed production is more closely related to the development of poultry meat an egg production.
In this sense, the increase in poultry feed production is largely influenced by the recovery of poultry consumption in countries such as France and Italy which were seriously affected by the bird flu crisis. These two countries with resp. +3.4 and +4.2% however recovered only half the tonnage they lost in 2006 compared to 2005. France is still by far the leading producing country for poultry feed.
for 2008, Fefac experts foresee a +2% increase for poultry feed.
Full production figures are available from the Fefac website.
Join 31,000+ subscribers
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated about all the need-to-know content in the poultry sector, three times a week.
