Data gathered on feed costs in Venezuela would appear to place that country on the same ranking scale as Iceland but a lack of exchange control regulations in that market makes it difficult to confirm the validity of the findings, said Aidan Connolly, chief innovation officer at Alltech, when we caught up with him at IPPE 2015 in Atlanta.
“Dollars are sold on the black market there for about 184 bolivars to the US dollar instead of the country's three-tiered exchange rate system that has ranged from the 6.3 official rate to two other rates, currently at about 12 and 50,” he continued.
Among the top 20 feed producers, Japan is in the top spot for costly feed while other countries that ranked highly were Sudan, Seychelles, and Haiti, showed the company's report.
Pig and poultry prices
Prices in China are twice that of other major producers, while some of the lowest prices for poultry feed were reported in Russia, Brazil, Mexico, and also in the UK.
The lowest prices for feed for pigs were found in Russia, the US, Denmark, and Canada.
“Despite the disparity in prices from region to region, our perception is that there is far greater convergence in international feed prices today than what we would have seen 20 years ago. And this is largely down to greater uniformity in grain prices globally,” said Connolly.
Factors such as the cost of cereals and the lack of infrastructure in Africa in relation to cold storage, railways and other supply chain deficiencies are keeping feed costs in that continent at still relatively prohibitive levels, he said.
“Africa continued to grow this year in terms of feed output, ranking number one globally in terms of its pace of production increase. The rate of meat consumption is growing strongly but the continent needs to get its feed costs down dramatically in order for it to become a serious player on the animal protein market,” he added.
Alltech’s latest research findings shows aqua feed again grew, but only by 1.8%.
However, Connolly says the results underscore how that sector is moving towards really efficient production systems with far lower feed conversion ratios compared to pig, chicken, lamb and beef production.