The message is unmistakable. Insight into the development of animal feed production by industrial mills in Turkey during 2008 has become available from a statistical survey undertaken by Turkish feed manufacturers association Türkiyem-Bir. It clearly tells a story of another year's strong growth.
On the basis of replies from members, the quantity of animal feeds produced this year by the largest players has already grown more than 20% and a 10% increase looks to be in prospect for the national tonnage over the full 12 months.
The survey checked on the top 50 companies in the association's membership for annual production volume, explains Serkan Özbudak at the Türkiyem-Bir offices in Ankara. The survey asked the companies for their month-by-month output figures between January and August, in 2007 and 2008.
Growth posted each month
Details of the results can be seen in the accompanying table. Every month has had an increase, even if the rate of growth seems to have slowed from 20% or more at the start to 10% or less in more recent times. See also that the results have been compiled by the association according to whether the responding company rated in the top 10, 25 or 50 companies for size.
"This table shows a growth of 15% in 2008 compared to 2007 for the quantity manufactured during the period of eight months from January to August," comments Serkan. "But the production increase indicated by the 10 largest companies was 21%. Now, we expect that at the end of 2008, the amount from all of the feed manufacturers in Turkey will work out to have increased during the year by about 10%."
Turkey's 10 biggest feed makers are suggested to have produced a combined total of 2.24 million metric tons in the first eight months of 2007. In the comparable period of 2008, they made 2.58 million metric tons. Their 21% higher output this year compared with a rise from 3.04 million metric tons to 3.52 million metric tons, or 16%, for top-25 mills.
The growth of 15% reported for all top-50 companies meant going from 3.52 million metric tons last year to 4.05 million metric tons in the comparable part of 2008.
To put these indicators into the context of a longer term, earlier statistics available from Türkiyem-Bir had pointed to national feed production rising by 10% between 2006 and 2007. Official numbers gave the 2006 total as 7.5 million metric tons.
