Demand for poultry meat drives feed production
Increasing global demand for poultry helped boost world animal feed production last year, which grew by 1.2% to 1.396 billion metric tonnes.
Despite the ongoing issues posed by high pathogenic avian influenza, economic uncertainties and climate fluctuations, figures released by Alltech in its Agri-Food Outlook showed animal feed production rising from 1.380 billion mt in 2023.
The annual survey, based on data from 142 countries and 28,235 feed mills, found that the top 4 countries (China, United States, Brazil and India) produced more than half of the world’s feed (52%).
Taking into account the next 6 largest feed producers (Mexico, Russia, Spain, Vietnam, Turkey and Japan), the top 10 nations produced nearly two thirds of all animal feed (65.6%).
Poultry: growth areas
Consumer desire for protein-rich cheap poultry continues to drive up production and in turn broiler feed. Broiler feed rose by 1.8% to 385.4 million mt, accounting for 27.6% of the total feed tonnage in the world.
With red meat prices surging, affordability drove demand in both Asia-Pacific and Latin America, but rising incomes in parts of Africa also boosted growth. Alltech believes that although HPAI will continue to be persistent, feed volumes are likely to rise moderately due to the meat’s affordability and export opportunities.
The layer sector also saw growth, but perhaps lower than envisaged at 1.4% to 173 m mt in 2024. This was partly due to disease, which led to flock reductions in North America but also oversupply in some regions.
There were volumes gains however in Asia-Pacific as consumer favoured eggs as a cheaper protein option, while healthy demand continued last year in Africa and Latin America.
The future is less certain and for some regions may depend on the development and uptake of vaccines against HPAI and improved biosecurity measures to mitigate bird losses.
