Santo Domingo.- The start of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the effects of climate change and the aftermath of the pandemic, “intensified” the challenges in the supply chain and promoted the adoption of new technologies and sustainability practices in the production of animal feed .
In 2022, the production of balanced feed presented a negative decrease of 0.42% compared to 2021, when this amount stood at 1,271.7 million metric tons (MT) and for last year at 1,266.3 million MT, according to the study. “Prospects for the agri-food sector”, produced by the multinational Alltech.
When breaking down the data from the survey, carried out on producers in the sector, it is evident that the regions of Africa, Asia Pacific and Europe presented a decrease in the last two years. The Old World presented a variation of -4.6% between 2021 (467,922 million MT) and 2022 (465,540 million MT), which is equivalent to 2,382 million MT less.
Food grown in Africa went from 44,506 million MT to 42,788 million MT, this means a drop of 3.8% over the last two years.
Although food production from Asia Pacific represents 36.7% of the 1,266.3 million MT that was produced globally, this sector decreased significantly when compared to the same period in 2021. According to the data, it went from 467,922 million MT in 2021 to 465,540 million MT in 2022, for a variation of 4.6%.
However, agribusiness from the Middle East reported 21,785 million MT in 2022, which is equivalent to an increase of 6,301 million MT compared to 2021, when food production stood at 25,484 million MT.
Meanwhile, the Latin American agri-food industry added 190,910 million MT in 2022, compared to 187,904 million MT in 2021; a difference of 3,006 million MT is evident in the production of balanced feed.
Oceania continues to a lesser extent, whose production in 2021 stood at 10,433 million MT. By 2022 it exceeded 10,466 million MT, for a growth of 0.3% between both periods.
In addition, 60% of those surveyed indicated that the main challenge for agribusiness in 2023 is the high prices of raw materials, followed by 40% indicating low productivity and 35% supply chain disruptions.
Panorama
The Asian giant (China) positioned itself as the main feed producing country in 2022, registering a production of 260,739 million MT, followed by the United States with 240,403 million MT, Brazil and India with 81,948 million MT and 43,360 million of TM, respectively.
In the American hemisphere, Mexico, with a production of 40,138 million MT, ranked as one of the 10 countries that most produce this type of food, above Russia (34,147 million MT), Spain (31,234 million MT) and Vietnam (26,720 million MT).
The nations of Argentina and Germany continue with the least amount of food produced, reporting 25,736 million MT and 24,396 million MT, respectively. According to the report, these countries represent 64% of world production of balanced feed.