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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15. Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited
Revenue: $9.20 million
Animal Feed Volume (x 1000 MT): 27,650
Number of Employees: 77
Country: Thailand
Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group is Thailand’s leading integrated agro-industrial company. The company offers international feed distribution in 14 countries and holds whole or partial ownership in 200 subsidiaries. The company produces a different kind of livestock feeds such as poultry, chicken, swine, and aquafeeds. In 2018, CP acquired 40% of ordinary shares of Camanor Produtos Marinhos Ltda, a shrimp farm in Brazil.
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14. ForFarmers N.V. (AMS: FAARM)
Revenue: $51 million
Animal Feed Volume (x 1000 MT): 10,021
Number of Employees: 129
Country: Netherlands
ForFarmers is one of the largest feed producers in Europe. ForFarmers supplies organic and regular animal feed and related farm products. The company provides feed, as well as pesticides, fertilizers, and seeds for cattle, pigs, chickens, goats, and sheep. The company owns 42 manufacturing facilities in the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK, and Germany. In 2018, ForFarmers acquired the feed activities of Belgian-based Voeders Algoet and Maatman veevoeders en kunstmest VOF.
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13. Arab Company for Livestock Development (ACOLID)
Revenue: $156.52 million
Animal Feed Volume (x 1000 MT): 6,840
Number of Employees: 50
Country: Saudi Arabia
ACOLID is a Saudi Arabia-based joint-stock company owned by 11 Arab States and Gulf Investment Corporation. The company handles all processes from agricultural, technical, and commercial activities in feed production. Aside from compound feeds, ACOLID also distributes other animal products such as dairy, fattened lambs and calves, and frozen chicken.
12. East Hope Group
Revenue: $806.58 million
Animal Feed Volume (x 1000 MT): 7,600
Number of Employees: 250
Country: China
East Hope Group is one of the largest animal feed companies in the world. East Hope Group is a large Chinese corporation that engages in animal feed production as well as chemical and other agricultural products. The group operates 111 subsidiaries of animal feed in China, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, and other regions. The company manufactures poultry feed, pig feed, and ruminant feed through its 96 owned feed mills.
11. De Heus
Revenue: $3 billion
Animal Feed Volume (x 1000 MT): 8,000
Number of Employees: 6,000
Country: Netherlands
De Heus is an internationally-known animal feed company that supplies nutritional products for animals. The company provides full and supplementary feeds for concentrates, premixes, and tailor-made feeds. It is no surprise that the Dutch company is active in 75 countries. De Heus operates 66 feed mills in Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia. In 2019, De Heus entered the market of Ukraine by acquiring a major stake in D-Mix. The joint partnership will carry out its business activities under the trade name ‘Koudijs Ukraine’.
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10. Muyuan Foods Co Ltd (SHE: 002714)
Revenue: $3.6 billion
Market Cap: $39.1 billion
Animal Feed Volume (x 1000 MT): 11,000
Number of Employees: 706
Country: China
Muyuan Foods Co. Ltd. is a Chinese feed producer that interests in feed manufacturing, pig breeding and commercial pig production, pig slaughtering, and pork processing. The agribusiness giant comprises 88 wholly-owned subsidiaries and two shareholding firms.
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9. Alltech Inc.
Revenue: $4 billion
Animal Feed Volume (x 1000 MT): 6,500
Number of Employees: 4,200
Country: United States
Alltech Inc. is an established American animal feed producer that offers farmers globally a variety of premium animal nutrition products and supplements. The company engages in nutrigenomics and innovative use of yeast fermentation for their animal feed products. Alltech operates in 128 countries, employing over 4,200 people worldwide, and serves internationally with 77 manufacturing facilities and 3 bioscience centers. Need more proof that Alltech is one of the largest animal feed companies in the world? Some of Alltech’s acquisitions include EMF Nutrition and Masterfeeds (Canada), Emrovit (Switzerland), Lienart (Australia), and Ridley and Lakeland Animal Nutrition (United States).
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8. JA Zen-Noh Meat Foods KK
Revenue: $6 billion
Animal Feed Volume (x 1000 MT): 7,200
Number of Employees: 7,446
Country: Japan
Tokyo-Based JA ZEN-NOH is a federation of agricultural cooperatives that is responsible for the distribution of agricultural products and resources, including grains, fruits and vegetables, feed for animals, fertilizers, and agricultural machinery. The company owns 22 feed mills that distribute all feeds domestically. Also, the company operates grain facilities in the US and Brazil.
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7. BRF (NYSE: BRSF)
Revenue: $10.5 billion
Market Cap: $3.41 billion
Animal Feed Volume (x 1000 MT): 10,506
Number of Employees: 87,829
Country: Brazil
Former Brazil Foods is a Brazilian integrator and one of the biggest producers of compound feed in the world. Although most of the company’s feed is used for its broiler and hog production, it supplies a small quantity to other companies. The company’s exports now reach over 150 countries around the world. BRF has more than 105,000 workers in 35 manufacturing units in Brazil, 16 abroad (nine in Argentina, four in Thailand, one in the United Kingdom, one in the Netherlands, and one in the United Arab Emirates), and 40 distribution centers.
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6. Wen’s Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd.
Revenue: $11 billion
Market Cap: $2205 billion
Animal Feed Volume (x 1000 MT): 12,000
Number of Employees: 30,000
Country: China
Wen’s Food Group is China’s leading producer of poultry and pigs, with 262 firms combined to include 53,000 family farms across China. Aside from manufacturing animal feeds, the company also engages in bio-pharmacy and food processing services. The company is also involved in the production of equipment for modern agriculture and animal husbandry.
5. New Hope Liuhe
Revenue: $11.9 billion
Market Cap: $19.3 B
Animal Feed Volume (x 1000 MT): 20,000
Number of Employees: 60,000
Country: China
New Hope Liuhe Co is a Chinese company primarily engaged in the manufacture and distribution of pig feed, chicken feed, aquatic feed, duck feed, and meat products. New Hope Liuhe operates almost 500 branch and affiliate companies and employs nearly 60,000 people.
4. Land O’Lakes Inc.
Revenue: $13.88 billion
Animal Feed Volume (x 1000 MT): 13,500
Number of Employees: 9,000
Country: United States
We might know Land O’lakes as a popular distributor of dairy products such as butter but did you know that the company also sells animal feeds for farm and exotic animals through Purina Animal Nutrition and Mazuri? Yes, Purina Animal Nutrition owns a high-tech research facility that works as a farm where food for different animal species is developed. On the other hand, Mazuri provides animal feed for zookeepers, vets, breeders, and exotic pet owners. Land O’Lakes ranked 232nd at Fortune 500 in 2020.
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3. Nutreco
Revenue: $28 billion
Animal Feed Volume (x 1000 MT): 9,000
Number of Employees: 11,005
Country: Netherlands
Nutreco N.V. is a Dutch distributor of animal nutrition, fish feed, and processed meat products. Nutreco provides innovative nutritional solutions are the source of food for millions of consumers worldwide. Nutreco supplies fish and shrimp feed through Skretting and animal nutrition products through Trouw Nutrition in more than 90 countries around the world. Nutreco operates 15 production facilities in Europe, 17 animal feed plants in the US, and 3 manufacturing facilities across Asia.
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2. Tyson Foods
Revenue: $43.1 billion
Market Cap: $23.669 B
Animal Feed Volume (x 1000 MT): 10,000
Number of Employees: 141,000
Country: United States
One of the largest animal feed companies in the world is Tyson Foods which operates 32 feed mills, three of which are in China and India. Tyson Foods is the world’s leading integrator of poultry, pork, and beef. Significant markets for sales include Brazil, Canada, Central America, China, the European Union, Japan, Mexico, the Middle East, South Korea, and Taiwan. In 2018, Tyson Foods purchased Keystone Foods for $2.16 billion from Marfrig Global Foods.
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1. Cargill Inc.
Revenue: $114.6 billion
Animal Feed Volume (x 1000 MT): 19,600
Number of Employees: 155,000
Country: United States
Topping the list of the 10 largest animal feed companies in the world is no other than Cargill. Cargill is actively involved in many nutritional, agricultural, financial, and industrial interests, including the main Animal Nutrition & Protein division, which operates at 280 locations in 70 countries. Minneapolis-based Cargill was founded by William Wallace Cargill in 1865. The company started from being a grain storage facility and 150 years later, it has become one of the biggest key players in the animal feed sector. Aside from this, Cargill is a well-known global manufacturer and distributor of agricultural goods such as sugar, refined oils, chocolate, and turkey. The multinational company also engages in commodities trading, risk management, and transportation services. This year, Cargill has been listed by Forbes as one of the best employers and the second-largest private company in America.
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This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.