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Fefac, the umbrella organisation of European animal feed companies, warns that Europe is highly dependent on a small group of countries outside the EU, especially China, for essential animal feed additives. These additives include vitamins and amino acids for animal feed.
These are essential components of animal feed, producers warn: vitamins are necessary for animal health, and amino acids help reduce dependence on foreign soy and lower nitrogen emissions. If certain important amino acids are lacking in feed, this can sometimes be compensated by adding more crude protein, which leads to higher nitrogen emissions. Nowadays, instead, synthetic amino acids are often specifically added.
80% of vitamins produced in China
According to Fefac, 80% of total worldwide vitamin production comes from China, and only 8% from the European Union. Of the total value of vitamins that the European Union imports, 60 to 70% comes from China. For amino acids, this figure is 70 to 80%. The global market for these additives is dominated by only a small group of countries, warn feed suppliers. In addition to China, 2 other countries are on the list that the industry describes as ‘high geopolitical risk’: Russia and Belarus. For the essential amino acid lysine, the EU is 95% dependent on countries outside the EU.
Fefac: Reduce dependency
The animal feed sector calls on Europe to designate additive production as an essential sector and to take measures to reduce dependency on other countries for these products. An additional problem is that the production of some essential additives requires other raw materials, which are also only available from a limited number of countries. That applies, for example, to the production of vitamin A and vitamin E.
High production costs in Europe
To become more independent, Europe would need to invest in new production facilities. At present, however, these cannot compete with foreign production in terms of cost. The European chemical industry faces very high costs, especially for energy and raw materials, according to Fefac. The sector organisation argues that Europe should take measures to create a more level playing field.
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