March 29, 2006

EU compound feed production declines slightly in 2005

The European Compound Feed Manufacturers Federation (FEFAC) reported that EU total compound feed production for 2005 was 143.6 million tonnes, a slight decrease of 0.6 percent compared with the previous year.

The decrease occurred evenly over all feed categories except for milk replacers which registered a 1.3 percent gain. Poland, Spain and the Netherlands registered 7.9 percent, 3.7 percent and 2.5 percent gains respectively while the other large feed producing countries such as Belgium, Hungary and the UK faced 5.6 percent, 4.2 percent and 3.2 percent losses respectively.

Spain overtook Germany as the second-largest compound feed producing country in the EU.

FEFAC experts estimated a total reduction of 2.5-5 million tonnes of total EU poultry feed output in 2006 due to international concerns about the bird flu. Italy, France and Hungary are likely to face the strongest negative impact with the relative importance of poultry feed production in these countries.