Russia expected to increase compound feed output 7% to 39 mln tonnes in 2025 - Producers Union

MOSCOW. April 10 (Interfax) - Compound feed production in Russia will grow by 7.1% this year from 36.4 million tonnes in 2024, when it rose from 34.9 million tonnes in 2023, the CEO of the Compound Feed Producers Union, Alexei Nikolayev said Wednesday at a conference on livestock farming and animal feed in Moscow.

Compound feed production is expected to increase to 17.2 million tonnes from 16.9 million tonnes for poultry, to 16.5 million tonnes from 16.1 million tonnes for pigs and to 3.8 million tonnes from 3.1 million tonnes for cattle.

Nikolayev said fish feed production in Russia has been developing especially rapidly in recent years. Production of such feed more than doubled to 100,000 tonnes in 2024 from 48,300 tonnes in 2023, he said, citing estimates from producers and experts.

"Literally several years ago the aquaculture sector was completely import-dependent in terms of fish feed production. The Norwegians dominated here, but in 2022 they hastily left," Nikolayev said.

Since then, imports have fallen to about 40,000 tonnes from 157,000 tonnes, he said. Overall fish feed consumption in Russia is estimated at 140,000-150,000 tonnes per year.

Nikolayev also said production of premixes rose to 589,000 tonnes in 2024 from 554,000 tonnes in 2023, and is expected to increase to 620,000 tonnes this year. Production of protein, vitamin and mineral concentrates and feed mixes is forecast to grow to 1.366 million tonnes in 2025 after increasing to 1.32 million tonnes last year from 1.233 million tonnes in 2023.

However, Russian livestock farmers are not fully supplied with domestic feed additives, Nikolayev said.

"It is only possible to talk about complete provisioning with such essential amino acids as lysine and methionine taking into account supplies from Belarusian partners, the BNBC [Belarusian National Biotechnology Corporation]. As for other amino acids and all vitamins, everything is imported, primarily from China," Nikolayev said.

The European Union's share of supplies of these products by value decreased to 5% in 2024 from 7% in 2022, while the share of Belarus grew to 11% from 3% and China's share rose to 77% from 76%.

Russia's compound feed industry now primarily consists of plants that are part of agribusiness groups, which accounted for 73% of total production in 2024, Nikolayev said. "There are very few independent enterprises left, their share is 8%," he said. Plants at poultry farms accounted for 18% and feed stations produced 1%, his presentation said.