Animal feed industry poised to double to $30 bn in 5 years: Report

Pune, June 19: India’s animal feed industry, which is currently at $15 billion, is poised to double and touch $ 30 billion in the next five years to cater to the growing protein requirements of the country, a report published by Yes Bank says.

The report — The Indian Feed Industry – Revitalising Nutritional Security Knowledge — was released at the Global Grain Food and Summit being held in Pune on Friday. According to Nitin Puri, president and country Head, food and agribusiness research management, YES Bank, the current size of India’s feed industry which includes poultry, aqua and meat, is $15 billion.

The per capita meat and milk consumption is growing, especially in China and India, and is projected to remain high in the European Union, North America, Brazil and Russia. With changing income levels and more people eating fish, meat and chicken, there will be a higher requirement of processed dairy, aqua and poultry products, which in tur n will result in higher feed requirement, the report says.

With multinational companies eyeing the lucrative Indian markets, the animal feed industry in India will have to increase their capacities keeping in mind the quality issues to leverage on the growing demand for compound feed. India’s feed industry is growing at a CAGR of 8% with poultry, cattle and aqua feed sectors emerging as major growth drivers. According to estimates by leading industry sources, the demand for animal protein and dairy products in India will increase the compound feed consumption volumes to 28 million tonnes by 2017-18.

In India, at present, cattle accounts for 7.5 million tonnes, aqua industry consumes 1 mt while the poultry industry consumes around 13 mt of the feed, with soy meal and cor n being the prime consumables.

In volume terms, at present, an estimated 22 mt of feed is required in the country. Policy measures also needed to be taken to improve milk productivity of cattle which stood at 5-10 litres against 15-20 litres globally. Good feed was one of the ways of achieving this.

The feed sector in India is at an inflection point with the emergenceof moderndairies ranging from 50 animals to upwards of 500 animals, increasing exports of aqua product, he said.

The rising demand for animal protein and dairy products will, in turn, result in the consumption of more compound feed