Compound animal feed production in the EU-28 was up 1 percent to 158 million metric tons (MMT) in 2015, according to FEFAC’s annual report. That is approximately 16 percent of global compound animal feed production, estimated at 989 MMT.
Poultry and pig feed production were up 2.5 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively, and cattle feed production was down 0.7 percent. Poultry feed was the leading compound feed segment, slightly above pig feed.
“The good availability of forages due to favorable weather conditions and the sharp drop in dairy prices significantly affected the demand for compound feed for dairy cows, which did not benefit at all from the 2 percent increase in milk deliveries in 2015,” the report said. “Likewise, the feed industry could not take full benefit of the increase in pig production, whereas poultry feed production continued to grow, boosted by an increase in poultry meat consumption per capita (+4%).”
Poland and Spain are the only countries that saw production significantly increase, while Germany’s production decreased. Germany and Spain are ahead of France as the leading EU countries in terms of total compound feed production. Germany is the leading cattle and pig feed producer, and France is the leading poultry feed producer.
FEFAC said the proportion of animal feed materials per category remained stable at 48 percent for cereals and 28 percent for oilseed meals, despite huge variations in prices.
“However, this does not reflect significant changes for some feed materials e.g. for corn gluten feed or dried distillers grains usually imported from the USA which have almost disappeared since 2007 due to repeated trade disruptions because of asynchronised authorisations of GM crops.,” the report said.
Animal feed represented up to 85 percent of the farm gate value of poultry. Farm animals in the EU-28 are fed with approximately 480 MMT of feedstuffs – half of which are roughages produced on-farm, 10 percent are grains produced on-farm, 10 percent are purchased feed materials, and 30 percent are industrial compound feed.
Meat production
Meat and other animal products in the EU-28 represented approximately EUR162 billion (US$178.4 billion) – 39 percent of the total value of farm production.
Meat production increased for the fourth consecutive year. Growth for beef, pig and poultry meat was between 3 and 3.5 percent.
Meat consumption in the EU-28 is estimated at 91 kg per capita per year, 2 kg more than in 2014. Pig meat is the most-consumed meat in the EU-28 at 42 kg per capita per year, with poultry in second place at 26 kg per capita per year. The report said the EU is self-sufficient in livestock products in volumes, in particular pork and dairy products.