In the last two years, France's production of vegetable protein has been recovering. The support of French public authorities, established this year, aims at amplifying this movement, to reach their goal of returning to 400,000 hectares in 2012. With a production volume and regular supply, they believe that feed manufacturers will return using home-grown vegetable proteins in their formulations, materials they have been familiar with for decades.

 

In the 1990s, almost all of the French production of protein was destined for animal feed to be used in France and in neighbouring countries. More than three million tonnes of peas and beans were produced.

 

Intermediate products from these materials rich in protein (MRP) such as peas and beans are rich in starch and nitrogen. Both are sources of energy and amino acids, and are particularly well suited for feeding pigs (up to 30% of peas and 25% of broad beans were incorporated in pig formulas). Faba beans also contain high amounts of protein, which can enhance poultry feed.

 

The 1980s feature guaranteed prices for farmers, which were decoupled from the global market. This largely contributed to the development of vegetable protein surfaces in France. The usage of these vegetable proteins in animal feed diminished when production was discouraged, following the successive reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy (1992, 1999 and 2003). However, the market potential has not weakened since, and remains a massive opportunity open to producers.

 

In Europe, the dependence on vegetable protein is very high as producers depend on 73% of imported MRP.

 

Much of the protein is supplied by rapeseed meal and cakes, which can be easily combined in formulations for pigs with vegetable protein, including peas. Dependence on these products could be greatly reduced if the production of MRP continued to grow to meet the primary requirement of a feed manufacturer, with a constant supply.

 

France, the largest European producer of oilseeds and protein crops, is located at the heart of swine production areas in Europe (Britain, Benelux, Spain), and also of poultry and beef. France is the third largest pork producer in Europe behind Germany and Spain. Pork is the primary meat consumed in France (34 kg/ capita in 2008, representing 38% of all meat consumption combined).

 

Around 6.3 million tonnes of compound feeds for pigs are produced by the industry. Potentially, if 25% of feed was incorporated, this would create a market of 1.5 million tonnes of peas that could be provided by French producers.

 

In comparison, the harvest of peas in 2009 amounted to 450,000 tonnes. These figures do not include home mixed feeds at the pig farms, which also represent a market potential.

 

However, "home mixing represents about 30% of the consumption of French pig farms and 90% in the Eure department taken away from feed plants," says George Mezieres, pig technician at the chamber of Agriculture in the department Eure (north of France).

 

It is necessary to organise local supply between traders and pig farmers who are limited in producing vegetable protein products due to the prohibition of spreading manure on protein surfaces.

 

Since 2002, the production of French beans has found a new market in Egypt, and has been exporting feed there. This market's potential is limited (estimated ceiling of 300,000 tonnes), but prices have been attractive for several years.