European Animal Feed Industry

Greenpeace International, December 1999

Genetically engineered (GE) food is getting into the European food chain through the back door via animal feed. Thousands of tonnes of GE crops are imported to Europe every year and fed to cattle, pork and poultry.

Even though about 75 per cent of the farming land in the European Union is used for growing animal feed the animal feed industry in the EU is completely dependent on imports mainly from the US. Seventy per cent of the protein content in European animal feed is imported from the Americas: the US, Brazil, Canada and Argentina. Ninety-seven percent of soya in animal feed comes from either the US or South America, and almost all maize gluten feed and meal comes from the US. There is no EU regulation on the use of GE ingredients in animal feed. No labels are requirement for GE animal feed or the food products of animals fed GE crops. Several EU institutions have discussed novel feed regulations since 1996, but a draft has yet to be put forward.

World grain commodity market

A handful of multinational companies control the world grain market and feed supply. Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Cargill are the largest grain commodity shippers and processors in the world. Cargill has been described as having structural control of the food chain. Cargill alone controls about 45 per cent of the world grain market and is also the world_s largest oilseed trader. It is also a food processor and a feed manufacturer.

Shipments arrive in the EU at large ports such as Rotterdam, Liverpool, Brest or Hamburg where the beans are processed in large crushing facilities often owned by the same companies. The Cargill mill in Brest for instance processes 1800 tonnes of soya per day, and ADM Öhlmuhle in Hamburg 2,4 million tonnes of soya a year.

In 1996 total animal feed consumption in Europe was 323 million tonnes. The main sources of protein in animal feed are soya bean meal and maize gluten. Soya meal is used for poultry and pig feed; meal and hulls for dairy feed. Maize gluten is a by-product of the US food industry production of starch, sweeteners or industrial ethanol production. More than 90 per cent of this is used in cattle feed.

Once the soya is processed, the oil is then used primarily by the food industry. The remaining soya meal is used almost exclusively by the animal feed industry. Four international suppliers of raw materials for the feed industry are Cargill, ADM, Eridania Beghin-Say and ConAgra.

Cargill and other processors sell the processed soya meal direct to large feed compounders, integrated producers and brokers.

Feed compounders - who mix soya and other ingredients to produce a highly processed feed - represent with 121 tonnes sold anually more than 1/3 of the EU feed market and 2/3 of the bought-in feed market and sales of 28 billion Euro a year.

In the UK, the three largest feed companies each buy approximately 100,000 tonnes of soya per year. Integrated producers control the whole food chain from bought-in raw ingredients for feed to the final meat product on the supermarket shelf or fast food restaurant menu.

Brokers sell ingredients on to smaller feed compounders and farmers co-operatives. About a third of bought-in feed is for home-mixing - where a farmer will make up a mix from largely unprocessed raw materials, either bought-in or home-produced.

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