Official data point to significant increases in the numbers of poultry and livestock in Turkey during 2017, leading to a double-digit rise in compound feed output.
Total poultry numbers were 4.4 percent higher in December 2017 compared with 12 months previously, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute, TurkStat.
Although most numerous at 221.2 million, the broiler count rose by just 0.4 percent over the year, while there were 11.8 percent more laying hens, at 121.6 million. There were also increases in the numbers of turkeys (3.87 million; +21.7 percent), ducks (492,000; +18.8 percent), and geese (978,000; +4.8 percent) in the year to December 2017.
Over the same period, Turkey also recorded increases in the number of cattle (15.9 million; +13.2 percent), buffalo (161,400; +13.6 percent), and sheep (33.7 million; +8.7 percent). Only the goat population was lower in 2017 than the previous year, down 2.8 percent at 10.6 million.
After a minor decline of 1.6 percent in chicken production in Turkey in 2016 to 1.9 million metric tons (mmt), output rose by around 13 percent last year to 2.2 mmt, according to the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) in a recent GAIN report. FAS based this information on government and industry sources.
Turkish poultry production is forecast by the FAS to continue to grow in the coming years because of population growth by the indigenous Turks and around 3.5 million refugees, and poultry meat is much cheaper than other animal proteins. Turkey’s popularity as a tourist destination recovered in 2017, which helps to drive chicken consumption. Finally, the country’s freedom from avian influenza last year helped drive up exports by as much as 30 percent.
These forecasts are supported by the latest output data for January 2018.
Despite a seasonal dip from the previous month, data from TurkStat for January point to continued growth in the country’s poultry sector. Compared with the same month of 2017, the numbers of chickens and turkeys slaughtered were 10.5 percent and 70.4 percent, respectively, higher in January 2018. There were increases of 12.2 percent and 87.1 percent, respectively, in the monthly volumes of chicken and turkey meat produced in Turkey.
Around six percent more eggs were produced in January 2018 than 12 months previously.
10 percent increase in compound feed production
Citing industry sources, FAS estimates that compound feed production in Turkey reached 22.4 mmt in 2017 — an increase of 10 percent over the previous year’s figure.
Of the total, livestock feed output was 12.0 percent higher than in 2016 at 12.9 mmt. Poultry feed output increased 7 percent at 8.9 mmt, and Turkey also produced 600,000 metric tons of feed for other species (including fish), an increase of 11 percent from 2016.
