The world is depending on India for the supply of wheat as no fresh arrival is expected from anywhere in the world between now and July. However, India banned wheat exports from May 13 after a heatwave swept across the country and affected wheat production. Meanwhile, wheat crops in Ukraine and Russia are expected to mature in August and September. However, no one knows the extent of damage to Ukraine's wheat fields, warehouses and ports as a result of its war with Russia.

Studies show that China's import dependence on beef is about 30%, while that of dairy products is higher at 50%. The shortage of beef and milk, together with the low reproductive rate of ruminants, means that investments in the ruminant sector represent good development opportunities in the next decade.

Modern milking machines have become one of the most important technologies in China's dairy farming; based on the 2020 China Dairy survey data, 13.4% of domestic dairy farms used rotary parlour milking machines, which have made milk production more efficient. Reflecting this trend in using modern technology, automatic milking robots were installed last year by Ningxia Jiubeier Agricultural Development Company, which completed the construction of its 5G intelligent dairy farm.

During the 2020-21 period, milk production in India went up by 5.81%. As per the production data of the Food and Agriculture Organization's Corporate Statistical Database (FAOSTAT), the country ranks first in milk production, accounting for 21% of global output. Its milk production was 209.96 million tonnes in 2020-21, compared to 198.44 million tonnes in 2019-20.

At 65.49 million tonnes, China's 2020 aquaculture output accounted for more than 60% of global production. The country's rapid aquaculture development fueled its aquafeed industry's growth. eFeedLink statistics show that its aquafeed output exceeded 20 million tonnes in 2019; by 2021, it expanded to over 23.3 million tonnes.

Guangdong Hengxing Group is one of the leading aquafeed companies in China and has been the leader of the Chinese shrimp feed market for many years. The group currently has five subsidiary companies in Guangdong and Hainan provinces. Having started marine farming and fish fry breeding in 2004, Guangdong Hengxing saw sales volume of its shrimp feed reaching 320,000 tonnes in 2012, with a market share as high as 25%.

Since 2001, Tongwei, one of the largest aquafeed producers in China, has started to expand from feed production and seedling cultivation to aquatic product breeding, processing and forming a vertically integrated agricultural industry chain. Integrating photovoltaic power generation with modern fishery, the company intends to create a new 'aquaculture solar farm' model. It aims to establish this model to become the world's leading supplier of green agriculture and green energy.

In 2020, the production volume of the giant tiger shrimp in China was 100,000 tonnes, with annual production expected to surge to 500,000 tonnes within the next five years. This shrimp has become one of the favourite species in shrimp farming. They can fetch high prices and thus, in recent years, many large-scale farms were established in Fujian and Guangdong, Jiangsu and Guangxi.

India's fisheries and aquaculture sectors have registered an average annual growth of 7.53% in the last five years. Concerning aquafeed, around 1.4 million tonnes of shrimp feed was produced in India last year. But shrimp feed prices also increased two to three times in a year. Feed prices escalated in the same year as soybean, the main ingredient in feed, became costlier.

The pioneer of China's feed machinery industry started building feed machinery as early as 1973 and has since benchmarked the development of its products against advanced applications outside the country. Zhengchang Group’s business covers all parts of China. Globally, its operates in more than 80 countries and regions, providing high-quality services to more than 1,200 overseas customers.

eFeedLink statistics show that the price of corn in China has risen to CNY2,700/tonne from CNY2,300 in late 2020. The price of soybean meal has risen during this period to CNY4,100/tonne from CNY3,200/tonne. With thin profit margins, feed producers are very susceptible to increases in raw ingredients prices. One can understand this situation by knowing what goes into the costs of creating animal feed.

Aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing sectors globally, and India accounts for about 15% of it. The country's aquaculture production was estimated to be around 14 million tonnes in 2021. However, while India has positive growth potential, the Indian sector is fraught with challenges.

Chinese feed enterprises were seeing major changes in the last two years. Firstly, the recovery of pig farming and the growth of aquatic and ruminant feeds helped to boost the output of feed mills. Secondly, there were 36 major feed companies with a production capacity of one million tonnes or higher last year. The combined output of these feed mills totaled 180 million tonnes, 50% higher than 120 million tonnes in 2019.

For animal feed production, India registered a 12.2% growth in 2020. However, the country's feed industry is facing major, short-term challenges including high prices of raw materials and supply chain issues. Additionally, in the last two years, pandemic-related lockdowns affected the production and consumption of animal protein.

Markets that depend on wheat are getting the jitters over securing supply from Ukraine, a major wheat producer. Additionally, in terms of the significant disruptions to global supply, the country's corn is the same boat as its wheat. When grain prices would stabilise would be contingent on the outcome of talks between Kyiv and Moscow to end the war.

China ventured into lysine production in 1990, and this was led by Guangxi Guiyuan and Fujian Quanzhou Daquan. Several companies followed suit, but lysine output was limited pre-2000, with the country continuing to rely on imports. In 2000, China's lysine capacity was less than 10% of the global capacity of 800,000 tonnes.

Founded in 1998, Guangxi Yangxiang's business covers feed, pig and pork productions and smart pig farming. Last year, it was the eighth largest pig breeding enterprise in China. From 2018 to 2020, its annual release volumes of pigs were 1,980,200, 1,422,500 and 2,137,600 heads respectively.

Pig prices in China plummeted from ¥36.01/kg (US$5.68) in early 2021 to ¥10.35/kg (US$1.63) in early October. This was followed by a rebound to ¥16.64/kg (US$2.62) within a month, an increase of over 60%. Prior to this development, one trend is the accelerated expansion of large Chinese pig-producing companies. When hog prices soared in 2020 and early 2021, these companies made huge investments to expand production capacity.

Dairy farming is an important secondary source of income for India's 70 million rural households that produce an estimated 210 million tonnes of milk annually. 40% of this amount is processed by private cooperatives and is mainly consumed in India. The average cattle holding has between one and two animals. The domestic milk production system is scattered over several dairy farms producing an average of less than 5kg milk per day.

Surging feed costs have decimated the inventory growth of broilers. The average volume of broiler chickens, which stayed around 12 billion birds in January-November 2020, shrank to 11.7 billion in January-October 2021. Broiler slaughter volume in November 2021 plummeted by nearly 20% compared with that in November 2020.

Ningxia Xiaoming Agriculture and Animal Husbandry owns a network that encompasses various, relevant sectors, ranging from hatching to sales in the layer chick industry. From 2017 to 2020, the average annual growth rate of Ningxia Xiaoming's layer chick sales reached 20.97%. Last year, the company established a new parent-stock layer breeder breeding division.

In 2020, Lihua Animal Husbandry, a major yellow feather broiler producer in China, slaughtered 323 million yellow broilers, a 12% increase year-on-year and accounting for 7.3% of the total national slaughter volume. With its own great grandparent stock (GGPS) breeding facilities, Lihua has been engaged in breeding yellow feather broilers and adopted the 'company-cooperative-farmer' business model.

China's production volume of white feather broilers has surpassed that of yellow feather broilers, as the former became the biggest broiler breed domestically. In 2020, the country's volume of deep-processed white feather broiler products was 28.6 billion tonnes. Additionally, the local F&B industry prefers to source white broiler products as a way to save costs and improve efficiency.

Since May last year, bird flu outbreaks was reported in poultry and wild birds in 41 countries, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). As of December, the spread of , high pathogenicity avian influenza shows no sign of abating.

For the last two years, rising soybean meal prices since March 2021 affected the profitability of poultry farming in India. Additionally, industry data showed that poultry placements returned to 320 million per month.

China's yearly record for aquaculture feed consumption is close to 30 million tonnes. This growth in feed consumption has usually depended on trash fish. But, with a low feed conversion ratio, aquaculture production using trash fish is considerably unsustainable.

Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products is China's largest shrimp processor, and with the country's shift from being a net shrimp exporter to a net shrimp importer, the company has diversified its business from aquaculture production and processing to global procurement, deep processing and domestic sales.

Last year, China's New Hope set a target: pig slaughter volumes from 2021 to 2023 should have growth rates no lower than 100%, 300% and 700% respectively. With a very tight live pig supply, domestic live pig prices surged, boosting producers' confidence and sparking competition for farm expansions. It is under the stimulus of this development that New Hope invested resources to build pig farms.

China is the largest aquaculture-producing country in the world. According to data in the latest report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, total global fish production in 2018 was 179 million tonnes — of which aquaculture production is 82.1 million tonnes. This means aquaculture output accounted for 45.86% of the total output.

With one more international event to get nations to be more serious in their climate commitments, the call for real changes in agriculture persists.