The future of the animal nutrition sector in relation with the plant sector

Abstract

In order to feed its animal population, large amounts of fodder, cereals and meal are used in France. In order for these animal productions to be competitive with imported products, the mixed feed industry, which covers most of the feeding needs of pigs and poultry, systematically uses alternatives which depend on the evolution of market prices. Although the French market provides enough cereals to cover the needs of the animals in the country, the industry needs to acquire substances rich in protein, in particular soy meal, from the international market. The French provisioning of raw materials for animal nutrition appears as being very highly related to the evolutions of the different French and foreign plant sectors, which are themselves, very dependent on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the world market and agriculture politics set up in some important exporting countries such as the United States or Brazil. Thus the 1993 reform of the CAP has strongly modified the distribution of uses of the different raw materials with a very strong progression of cereals and a net decrease of products of cereal substitutes (notably manioc and corn-gluten-feed).

The factors associated with the prices of raw materials and agricultural politics will remain fundamental in the changes of the different methods of French provisioning. Other factors such as security preoccupations, traceability and transparency will, however, play more important roles ; the problematics of GMO are situated within this context.