WATT Global Media recently released the results of its exclusive 2016 Nutrition & Feed Survey, which seeks to define the external market trends shaping poultry feed businesses over the past 12 months, the company said in a press release yesterday.
The editors of WATT PoultryUSA, Industria Avícola, Poultry International, and Feed International magazines surveyed 286 people producing and using poultry feed worldwide. The survey was conducted in both English and Spanish.
Compared with 2015, respondents had a fairly positive 2016 outlook, with 67 percent citing improving profitability or maintaining last year’s business. However, 40 percent of respondents have seen inclement conditions such as exchange rate fluctuations, variable grain quality, and high ingredient and additive costs continue to chip away at their profitability, mainly in Latin America, Asia and Africa.
Antimicrobial resistance and the push to eliminate its use for growth promotion are the primary focus of animal producers. Fifty-eight percent of respondents consider the elimination of antibiotics in feed due to consumer pressure and/or government regulation as a critical obstacle to overcome in 2016. “The world’s agriculture industry is coming to terms with the fact that it’s time to re-examine longstanding practices before they become mandated by regional – eventually, perhaps international – regulators,” says Jackie Roembke, editor of Feed International and Feed Management magazines.
“The necessary production, management and formulation shifts required to even begin to address the overuse and elimination of antimicrobials from production clearly weighed heavily on our survey respondents,” Roembke said
Results from the 2016 Nutrition & Feed Survey can be accessed now in the June digital edition of Feed International, July digital editions of Poultry International and Industria Avícola, with additional coverage forthcoming in the August issue of WATT PoultryUSA.
