And the winner, based on the Alltech 2014 survey of global feed production, is China. The US and Brazil trail the Asian giant in second and third place respectively. Check out the infographic below for their tonnage statistics.
In March, Aidan Connolly, vice president of Alltech, told us that while Asia accounted for 36% of the world’s feed tonnage – 348,000,000 tons – the figure, “could easily be double with still so much other stuff being fed [to livestock]”.
The Middle East, according to the survey, is estimated to have the largest feed mills by average metric tons per year.
But Africa is fast gaining attention in the global arena of livestock feed output. The Alltech survey showed Africa as the fastest growing feed producer in the world, with a 17% hike on 2012 figures. Output there reached 31m MT in 2013.
Decrease in feed output in EU forecast
Last month, European feed manufacturing trade body, FEFAC, released final estimates for compound feed production in the EU in 2013.
Total output is now set at 155m MT, which is slightly above the 2012 figure at 154.7m MT.
FEFAC experts expect a stabilisation in poultry and cattle feed production and a further reduction in pig feed production in 2014. Overall, this would lead to a slight decrease in compound feed production of somewhere between -0.2 and -0.5% this year compared to 2013.
The FEFAC estimates show that, among the largest producing countries, UK, Poland and Belgium confirmed the good results recorded in 2012, with an annual growth around +3% in 2013, boosted mainly by the demand for cattle feed.
As opposed to that, the Netherlands, Portugal and Hungary saw their production continue to fall by around -2.5 to -3%.
Among the top three producer countries, the production volume in France and Germany remained stable, whereas Spain fell back by -1.7%.