EU feed industry Concerns and Call for action at EU Council level to tackle exploding energy costs and their advsere impact on feed & food security

FEFAC member express their deep concerns about the exponentially rising costs linked to energy use by compound feed manufacturers, who provide an essential service to livestock farmers assuring feed and food security. At this pace, there is a growing threat for a rising number of SME type of compound feed and premix manufacturers to be driven out of business, by sharply increasing procurement costs for gas and electricity. All manufacturing plants will face significant cost increases for feed production on top of an already record-high price level for their key feed ingredients, exacerbated by the Ukraine crisis.

This could jeopardise the feed industry’s mission to safeguard feed & food security. Livestock farmers rely on regular, often weekly, feed deliveries to maintain their herds in good animal health and welfare conditions for which balanced nutrition is a key factor. FEFAC strongly urges EU Member States to consider feed production for food-producing animals as an essential sector, as already agreed by the European Commission, as a key learning from the COVID crisis. European compound feed manufacturers are already implementing emergency energy-saving measures, such as reduced use of feed pelleting and feed expansion technology.