The findings for 2019 show international feed tonnage decreased by 1.07% to 1.126 billion metric tons of feed, due largely to African swine fever (ASF) and the decline of pig feed in the Asia-Pacific region.
With data collected from 145 countries and nearly 30,000 feed mills, the Alltech report indicates feed production by species as: broilers 28%; pigs 24%; layers 14%; dairy 12%; beef 10%; other species 6%; aquaculture 4%; and pets 2%.
A new approach
Alltech said it made changes to the way data were calculated this year, including:
- The Oceania region was separated from Asia-Pacific to reflect a more widely accepted regional analysis.
- Calculations for US poultry and ruminant were adjusted to reflect the required feed production more accurately. 2018 estimations were adjusted using the same calculation for consistency and accurate comparison.
The top nine feed-producing countries were recorded as the US, China, Brazil, Russia, India, Mexico, Spain, Japan and Germany. Together, these countries produce 58% of the world’s feed production and contain 57% of the world’s feed mills, said the company.
“China’s feed production declined by almost 20 MMT of feed overall to 167.9 MMT and fell from the top feed-producing country globally to second, behind the US.”
Poultry feed tonnage data
The Alltech survey results indicate Asia-Pacific is the dominant region in both broiler (115.2 MMT) and layer (73.1 MMT) feed.
In Latin America, Brazil takes top spot in the region with 32.1 MMT broiler feed production, followed by Mexico with 10.5 MMT. Mexico’s layer feed production increased by 11% to 7.05 MMT and surpassed Brazil, found the report.
Russia leads Europe with 10.86 MMT of the total region’s 56.3 MMT of broiler feed and 5.3 MMT of the region’s total of 33.5 MMT of layer feed.
In North America, the US accounts for 94% of the broiler feed with 48.5 MMT, while layer feed in Canada increased by 460,000 metric tons.
Beyond poultry…
Pig feed
Pig feed production was greatly impacted by ASF, with an 11% decrease. The primary producing region for pig feed remains Asia-Pacific, but it also experienced the largest decline of 26%, with China (-35%), Cambodia (-22%), Vietnam (-21%) and Thailand (-16%) experiencing large decreases.
Europe, North America and Latin America remained relatively stable compared to last year, within a percentage point’s worth of gain or loss. While Africa is a small region from a tonnage standpoint for pig feed, it showed a large increase of 29%, showed the data.
Dairy feed
Europe leads global dairy feed production with 34% followed by North America (21.8%), Asia-Pacific (17.6%) and Latin America (15.3%).
The top dairy feed producing countries are Turkey (6.5 MMT), Germany (5.2 MMT), Russia (4.2 MMT), the UK (3.8 MMT), France (3.4 MMT), the Netherlands (3.3. MMT) and Spain (3.2 MMT).
Beef feed
North America continues to lead global beef feed production with 62.3 MMT, followed by Europe (21.9 MMT) and Latin America (13.9 MMT).
Aqua feed
Overall, aquaculture feeds showed growth of 4% over last year. Per ton, Asia-Pacific grew the most with an additional 1.5 MMT, found the survey.
The primary contributors were China, Vietnam and Bangladesh. Europe’s decrease is in large part due to decreased feed production in Russia, which is primarily due to an increase in imports.
Pet food
The pet food sector saw growth of 4% with the largest tonnage increases in Asia-Pacific (10%), Europe (3%) and Latin America (6%), said Alltech.
By country, increases were seen in China, Indonesia, Portugal, Hungary, Ecuador and Argentina.
A regional focus…
North America
The US is the largest feed-producing country globally with an estimated 214 million metric tons (MMT), including beef (61.09 MMT), broilers (48.525 MMT) and pigs (44.86 MMT) as the leading species. North America saw steady growth of 1.6% over last year.
Canada produced 21.6 MMT with pigs (8.23 MMT), broilers (3.25 MMT) and dairy (4.2 MMT) leading species feed production, reported Alltech.
Latin America
As a region, Latin America saw 2.2% growth to 167.9 MMT. Brazil remained the leader in feed production for the region and third overall globally, with the primary species for feed production being broilers (32.1 MMT) and pigs (17.0 MMT).
Brazil, Mexico and Argentina continue to produce the majority of feed in Latin America with 76% of regional feed production.
Europe
Europe remained relatively stagnant with a slight increase of 0.2% over last year, the data showed.
The top three feed-producing countries in Europe are Russia (40.5 MMT), Spain (34.8 MMT) and Germany (25.0 MMT), with pig feed production leading the way in all three countries.
The ruminant sector was hit the hardest as both dairy and beef numbers are estimated to be down by 4% and 3%, respectively. This was offset primarily by strong growth in the aqua (7%) and layer (3%) industries, said Alltech.
Asia-Pacific:
The Asia-Pacific region saw feed production decrease by 5.5% in 2019, primarily due to ASF and large declines in pig feed production in China in particular.
India and Japan remained in the top nine feed-producing countries, with similar production compared to 2018 with 39.0 MMT and 25.3 MMT, respectively, while Vietnam declined by 7%.
Africa
Africa continued strong growth with a 7.5% increase in overall feed production, with all the primary species seeing positive growth.
The top five feed-producing countries in the region account for 75% of Africa’s feed production, and they are South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco and Algeria, said Alltech.
The region’s primary species include broiler, layer and dairy, and, combined, they account for nearly half of feed production estimates in the region.
