Turkey, Romania, Tunisia and Bolivia were also classified as hot spots for growth and development, with each reporting a second consecutive year for increased production.
Vietnam, Morocco and Indonesia also saw significant jumps in productivity, notes the Alltech survey.
When grouped in regions, Africa and Latin America saw the greatest growth in 2014, with Africa experiencing growth in all species, found the report.
Aidan Connolly, chief innovation officer at Alltech as well as director of the survey, told this publication in December that Alltech's research indicates remarkable growth in feed output in certain markets. “Smaller countries are beginning to see the positive impacts of the technologies that larger countries have been using for some time now,” he said.
The survey includes analysis of the compound feed production from 130 countries in December 2014.
The findings show a hike in output in the worldwide feed industry of 2%. Global feed tonnage was measured at 980m million metric tons (MT), while last year it was roughly 960m MT.
Connolly notes global feed production trends throughout 2014 were impacted by multiple factors including widespread droughts, high costs of raw feed materials, fluctuating governance over import/export standards, and animal diseases such as avian influenza and the PED virus in pigs, which proved to be disastrous for farmers in several regions.
China takes top prize again
China once again ranked the top producer with 182.69 million MT manufactured throughout the country’s 9,500 feed mills; however, this is the second year there have been a reported decline in Chinese production, shows Alltech’s research.
“The country experienced a notable 4% decline from last year’s numbers. Some analysts contribute this downturn to a slow hog market and bird flu that suppressed consumer demand,” said Alltech.
The US and Brazil ranked second and third respectively among the countries, with the US producing 172.5m MT from 6,718 feed mills, and Brazil generating 66m MT from 1,698 feed mills.
Indeed, the survey notes no change to the top 10 feed producers in the world from the year previously. The biggest feed production markets are as follow: China, the US, Brazil, Mexico, India, Spain, Russia, Japan, Germany and France.
Poultry still rules the roost
When analyzed by species, poultry held its position as industry leader with a 45% share of the feed market at 439 million tons, despite a slight decline compared to last year’s survey.
Pigs and pets saw the largest percentage of growth last year with the survey showing usage by the swine sector is up to nearly 256m tons. Aqua again grew, up 1.8% to over 41m tons.
The Alltech survey can be read here.
