January 26, 2017

Slower growth for EU feed market seen this year

As EU production of poultry and beef meat is expected to increase, the European compound feed market is seen to show slow growth again this year.

An article by Rabobank associate analyst Karen Heuvemans said total feed production is expected to increase by a meree .3%, with both poultry and cattle feed contributing to the uptick. It added that pork feed production may decrease slightly as pork production is set to decrease by 1.5%.

Poultry meat production would see the most growth, at 1.5% year-on-year, although avian influenza is a wildcard, the article said.

The .3% growth in compound feed production is slightly below market growth in 2016, estimated at +0.9%. Last year production grew across all livestock species.

"Poultry feed will continue its upward trajectory in 2017, at +0.8%. Cattle feed is expected to grow at +0.2%, despite lower dairy production forecasts", the Rabobank analysis said.

In her article, Ms Heuvemans said there would be higher demand for industrial cattle feed this year with continuous modernisation and higher usage rates of compound feed in dairy herd diets.