Pig feed dominates Spanish feed production

Feed production in Spain in 2010 reached a total of 29,7 million tonnes, an increase of 0.11% over the previous year, according to the final report on production data published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment. With a 46% share the production of pig feed is the main feed manufactured on the Iberian Peninsula.

Total feed production in 2010 in Spain reached 29,736,319 tonnes, more or less stable compared to 2009 with a slight increase of 34,000 tonnes or 0.11%.

However, if we simply compare the production of feed for animal production, production reached 28,9 million tonnes, which is 107,000 tonnes less than the production of feed for farmed animals in 2009, ie a slight decrease of 0.37%, approximately.

Thus, feed production has remained more or less stable, with a slight decrease if we consider only feed for animals for slaughter, after two years (2008 and 2009) of significant decreases in feed production.

In this regard it is noteworthy that, in contrast to the decline in animal feed production, pet food has increased significantly during 2010, continuing the trend of recent years.

Pigs lead for cattle

The distribution of feed among species remains very similar to previous years, with the production of feed for pigs clearly in first place with a share of 46%.

The volume of cattle feed is still impressive in Spain and takes about 22% of total production, followed closely by poultry feed with 21%.

Sheep and goat feeds with 5% share complement the total feed output.

In terms of regions Catalonia remains with 24% the largest producer of compound feeds, followed by Castile and Leon (16%) and in third place Andalusia and Galicia (9%).

Murcia, Extremadura, Castilla la Mancha and Valencia produce between 5.4% and 4.6% of domestic Spanish feed production.

Cereals main ingredient

In the manufacture of compound feed many different materials are used, but the most important belong to the group of cereals, which use for feed production was higher in 2010: 18 million tonnes, which represented more than 60 % of total raw materials consumed.

The second group of the most important raw materials are oils cakes, whose use exceeded 5 million tonnes, more than 17% of total raw materials used.

The third place is for cereal by-products with just over 2 million tonnes, which means, in percentage terms, about 7% of all raw materials used.