The big 7 in animal feed production

In 2016, global compound feed production barrier of 1 billion metric tonnes was crossed for the first time. In 2017, the global estimate reached again over 1 billion (1.07 billion tons to be precise). The growth seen in 2017 was strong at 2.57% over 2016. These data are gathered by animal nutrition company Alltech and published in their Annual Alltech Global Feed Survey.

The big 7

7 countries can be named as the biggest compound feed producers in the world. These are: China, USA, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, India and Spain. The top 7 countries can be viewed as a barometer of the trends in agriculture. The latest figures from 2017 show that all of these 7 countries, except for China, increased their annual feed production. China is one of the countries with the biggest consolidation in the number of feed mills over the last years and a weakened animal protein demand growth, combined with the forecast that the rate of population growth is to decline. The compound feed production statistics from 2012 till 2017 of the big 7 can be viewed in the table below.

Big influence on animal sectors

In 2017, comparing the production of these top countries as a percentage of aggregate feed production from the rest of the world demonstrates how significant they are to the overall business. For example, the 7 countries together produce 61% of all the pig feed in the world, and 58% of the broiler feed.