European Feed Federation appoints president

At the 26th Congress of the European Feed Manufacturers' Federation in Cracow, Poland, the general assembly elected Ruud Tijssens as its new president.
Tijssens is Director of Corporate Affairs in Agrifirm Group, based in The Netherlands. He succeeds Patrick Vanden Avenne, who has been the group's president since 2010. 

European Feed Federation releases 2012 market results

During the 26^th European Compound Feed Manufacturers' Federation Congress, "How to Stay Profitable in Volatile Times," on June 5-8 in Cracow, federation members have provided final estimates for the compound feed production for the European Union  in 2012. The total production estimate is now set at 152.7 million tons, or 0.7 percent above the 2011 figure. Pig feed has seen its production fall by 1.4 percent, whereas cattle feed recovered from its 2011 drop with a 2.4 percent rise in 2012. Poultry feed continued increasing by 1.5 percent.
Factors which have weighed on the EU feed demand in 2012 were the fragile economic situation of the pig sector and soaring feed material costs.
Among the largest producing countries, the United Kingdom and Poland performed well, with annual growth close to 3 percent and 5 percent respectively, boosted by the demand for cattle and poultry feed. The Netherlands and Hungary saw production fall between 1.5 and 2 percent. The production volume in France, Germany and Spain remained stable. Production of poultry feed in Southern Europe was affected by the implementation of the new welfare standards for laying hens.
The high cereals' prices over the last two years contributed to improving the competitive market position of industrial compound feed production versus home mixing. However, this gain was offset to a certain extent by the development of alternative pig feeding strategies based on roughly grinded feed and liquid feeding.
Overall, Germany's position as leading EU country in terms of total compound feed production was strengthened, ahead of France and Spain who are tied for the second position.
Federation market experts foresee a stabilization in poultry feed production, a further reduction in pig feed production and a slight increase in cattle feed demand. Compound feed production is expected to remain unchanged vs. 2012.
The demand for agricultural commodities is expected to remain high in 2013, with the main consequences of maintaining quotations at a high level. The quotations for agricultural raw materials increased significantly during the second half of 2012. After two major crop failures for soybean in South and North America, the positive impact on global quotations of the record harvest for soybean in Brazil in 2013 may be undermined by the storage and logistics challenges it could trigger. The record Brazilian corn harvest should also weigh on global quotations. The average cost for supply of feed materials is expected to remain firm in 2013 to 2012.

Victam Europe highlights opportunities for European animal feed producers

Patrick Vanden Avenne

The past year was the year of living dangerously, said Patrick Vanden Avenne, president of FEFAC, on the opening day of Victam Europe, taking place from May 3-5, at its new location in Cologne, Germany. Vanden Avenne noted that animal feed prices had been volatile, and margins and profitability difficult, and he added that the feed industry’s customers had found it hard to pass on costs.
But this was not all that had characterized the last year. Christmas had been far from merry due to the dioxin crisis in Germany. Yet despite so much doom and gloom, the European feed and livestock industries have shown the strength to rebound. While growth may be the strongest outside Europe, particularly in Asia and Latin America, the European periphery, for example Turkey, was also showing satisfactory growth.
There is a future for European feed and livestock industries – they are the laboratories of the world, and the continent remains a strong developer of new technology. Among new technologies on the horizon is the reintroduction of meat and bonemeal, and the use of biofuel byproducts for monogastrics. For those with any doubt about how technology continues to develop, Victam is the perfect showcase.
In 2010, for the first time, European sales of poultry compound feed overtook those of pig feed. The outlook for this year is that the market will be largely stable.
And indeed, while the German dioxin crisis certainly posed challenges for the industry, it also presented opportunities. Vanden Avenne insisted that there should be zero tolerance of cowboys, and that the owners of quality assurance systems should be brought together to ensure best practice across the continent. He said he was confident that the industry would rise to the challenge. 
Watch Vanden Avenne's presentation: European feed industry outlook.

FEFAC president to open Victam International 2011

The president of the European Feed Manufacturers Federation, Vanden Avenne, will help open the Victam International 2011 show to be held in Cologne, Germany.
The animal feed event, which will also encompass FIAAP International and GRAPAS International, will be the first since it was last held in 2007. “It has been four years since the last Victam International exhibition and a lot has happened in the industries that this world-famous exhibition serves," said Victam General Manager Henk van de Bunt. "This will be reflected in this new event — there will now be three trade shows in the exhibition hall and seven different conferences for the international delegates to attend."
Roughly 300 exhibitors from 28 countries are expected on the tradeshow floor. "Our visitors will see the latest specialist-appropriate technology that is used in the safe and cost effective manufacture of animal and aqua feeds as well for dry pet food," said van de Bunt. "There will also be a wide selection of companies that supply the 'nuts and bolts' equipment that are so necessary for a modern and efficient production plant and distribution system."
Victam International will be held May 3 through 5.

Feed union calls for European action on escalating grain costs

European feed manufacturers’ federation FEFAC has called on the Farm Council of the European Union to suspend import duties on all cereals in order to ease the “extremely worrying” market situation of the EU livestock sector caused by escalating feed grain costs.
The last time the EU suspended cereal import duties was in 2007, according to the federation, and prices for feed grains have recently returned to the exceptionally high levels of 2007/2008. “The EU pig sector in particular is facing a near market collapse,” said FEFAC president Patrick Vanden Avenne. “A key reason is the rising cost of feed grains resulting from global demand outpacing supplies. The current market crisis has been further exacerbated by the knock-on effects of the dioxin incident in Germany, leading to a drastic fall in domestic consumption and the temporary closure of some important export markets for German pigmeat.
Market experts, according to Avenne, anticipate that the present tension on the EU and global cereals markets may grow further before the end of the marketing year due to rising global competition for scarce feed grain supplies.

Written to your local newspaper recently?

I wrote a letter to the Editor of The Daily Telegraph, the widest circulating daily newspaper in the UK, this past week.
My letter has not and might never be published, but I don’t see why the point I was trying to make is not made because an editor considers other letters on the subject more suitable for publication or there is insufficient space to accommodate everyone's views. That’s where blogging comes into its own.
The subject I was particularly aggrieved over was the claim that we should eat less meat to help save the plant from global warming! Quoted were scientists and politicians saying what a great idea it would be to reduce our consumption of meat by at least one third. The article was written by the paper’s medical correspondent and did not quote anyone from the livestock sector.
Call me a ‘flat-earther’ - as Prime Mister Gordon Brown would label me - or a cynic if you will, but personally I think the whole climate change issues is more reflective in the ‘King has no cloths’ analogy. I support many of the policies being proposed by the climate lobby if only because it makes good sense to clean up after ourselves and leave the place as we found it when we check out. Therefore, in terms of recycling, reducing the pollution we pump into the environment and atmosphere and avoiding contaminating water and land resources, I go long with many of the suggested polices. However, encouraging us to eat less meat will not mean we will all live longer and happier lives in a landscape as pristine as if there were no human habitation. ...Read the full blog on AnimalAgNet.

Feed output takes hit in Brazil

The decline in the global economy has hit Brazil's feed production sector hard.
For the first half of 2009, total feed production was down 3.8% from the same period a year earlier, with beef cattle and dairy cattle sectors both showing greater than double-digit declines, according to data from the Brazilian Feed Industry Association.
The only categories to show improvement over 2008 in the fourth largest feed producing country behind the U.S., the European Union, and China, were layer feed use, which was up a modest 1%, and fish & shrimp feed demand, up an impressive 18%. Read the full blog on AnimalAgNet.

European feed tonnage drops in 2009

Feed output may fall 4-8%, according to executives at FEFAC and SPACE shows. Read the full article.