Feedlatina, based in Uruguay, is the association of animal feed industries from Latin America and the Caribbean. It has the support of entities such as the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Feed Industry Federation (IFIF), the World Organization for Animal Health, and ALA, among others. Established by Brazil and Mexico, the other current member countries are Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.
The objective of the association is to “promote the development, harmonization and maintenance of regulatory frameworks that guarantee free trade in the animal nutrition market, based on quality, safety and food security.”
A few days ago, Feedlatina elected Brazilian Roberto Betancourt, as its new president for the bi-annual period of 2024-2025. Betancourt has a long history in the international feed scene. He was president of the Brazilian Feed Industry Association (Sindirações), is a board member of IFIF and has participated in Feedlatina for many years.
Feedlatina holds the Latin American Workshop on Regulatory Affairs every two years, among other activities. The last one was organized in Mexico City, in July 2022, with representatives from 11 countries who gave presentations on requirements and procedures for products, registration intended for animal feed, regulations to authorize feed plants, requirements for exporters and importers of products, and other regulations. Antimicrobial resistance was also discussed.
The upcoming workshop will be this August 7-8, 2024, in São Paulo, Brazil, hosted together with SIAVS, the International Animal Protein Trade Show organized by the ABPA, the Brazilian Animal Protein Association. It is great that the Latin American feed industry continues to work on this, because, as a Mexican official said during the last workshop, without regulations “it would not be possible for a country to produce and export meat to supermarket shelves in other countries. Regulations today are essential and welcome.”
As per Feedlatina numbers, the Latin American region produced 155,875 metric tons (MT) of feed in 2023, where 94,620 was for poultry, 89,067 was for swine and 57,346 for cattle.
During the last workshop in Mexico City, the new Feedlatina president, predicted that the future of the feed manufacturing industry is in Latin America and that in 10 years it will be the largest feed producing region in the world.
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