In this article, we are going to list the 15 largest animal feed companies in the world. Click to skip ahead and jump to the 5 largest animal feed companies in the world.
For the non-vegetarian and non-vegan consumers, quality feed is the largest and most essential factor to ensure that we consume healthy, plentiful, and affordable animal proteins. Animal feed plays a significant role in the global food industry, facilitating the sustainable growth of animal products worldwide.
Despite the high demand for meat, dairy, and aquaculture products in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, even the essential supply chains have experienced disruption in distributing their goods to the public. On the other hand, the American Feed Industry Association reported an increase in demand for animal feed as local farmers and ranchers were stocking up supplies during the early stages of lockdowns in March. This has been resolved as the CISA included the animal feed manufacturers as an essential business.
According to the International Feed Industry Federation (IFIF), the global feed industry produces over 1 billion tonnes of compound feeds annually. The animal feed sector is valued at $400 billion in 2018 and is forecasted to grow by $92 billion in 2020 to 2024 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4% based on the animal feed market research conducted by Technavio. As we have witnessed a steady increase in demand for meat, dairy, and fish in the last few years, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations projects that food demand will rise by 60% by 2050. Moreover, the production of animal proteins is expected to increase by about 1.7% per year with meat production estimated to increase by almost 70%, aquaculture by 90%, and dairy by 55%. The increase in animal production requires more production of animal feed too. This challenges animal feed producers not to only meet the growing demand of the animal feed market but to ensure safe production.
As the old saying goes, you are what you eat. And the key to sustainable food is what we feed the animals we consume. It also includes the best practices in caring for animals and the environment they grow in. The U.S. is listed as one of the countries that eat the most meat. The good news is some of the biggest animal feed and livestock companies in the U.S. are already practicing sustainable feed production such as Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) and family-owned Cargill. In 2018, Tyson Foods became the first U.S. livestock provider to license PROGRESSIVE BEEF, a quality control system developed for cattle feed operators to distribute to companies. This year, Tyson Foods announced plans to buy more than 3 million Progressive Beef-certified cattle, accounting for over half of the cattle in the company’s supply chain.
Is the animal feed industry worth investing in? There are a variety of factors that determine a good animal feed company. We created a list of the largest animal feed companies in the world and ranked them by their revenue. We derived the revenue and market cap figures from Forbes and Fortune. We also included the annual volume production of each animal feed company in our list from WattPoulty. To give you an idea of how large the companies on our list are, we also added the number of employees they hire.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at the largest animal feed companies in the world:
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