(Source: FEFAC and European Commission)
Livestock production accounts for almost half (40%) of the overall EU-27 agricultural output. In 2008, 5 million farmers raised livestock with a total value of 152 billion €.
The European livestock breaks down as follows: 6000 million broilers, 370 million laying hens, 260 million pigs, 90 million bovines and 100 million sheep and goats.
That industry supplies 490 million EU citizens with: 130 million tons of safe milk
45 million tons of safe meat and 7 million tons of safe eggs.
The European feed sector is an essential partner in supply to the livestock industry. Feed is the major cost factor for the livestock farmers, e.g. representing up to 85 % of the production cost for poultry. Farm animals in the EU-27 consume an estimated 467 million tons of feed a year, of which 150 million tons are produced by the compound feed manufacturers (the worldwide compound feed production amounts to 700 million tons). The compound feed production of the EU-27 in 2008,150 million tons, can be broken down to mainly pig feed (35%), feed for broilers and laying hens (33%) and cattle feed (25%). The remaining is constituted of milk replacers (1%) and feed for other livestock (7%). The European feed industry is valorizing a very significant amount of byproducts from the food and biofuel industry. An average compound feed formula constitutes of 40 % of these byproducts (by-product is biofuel industry not specifically mentioned). On top of that, livestock farmers use approximately 228 million tons of forage and 89 million tons of feed materials (home-grown cereals or purchased feed materials).
The European compound feed industry is a growing industry and turnover is now estimated at 50 billion € (excluding pet food and not accounting the feed material business). It offers direct employment for approximately 110000 people in approximately 4500 plants. Many of these plants are situated in rural areas, which offer few employment opportunities. Most (85%) of the (compound) feed plants are small or medium size (SME) enterprises, with in 2008 an average annual production of 42.000 tons of compound feed per plant.
The other important feed area is pet food. About 62 million EU households have pets (e.g. 60 million cats and 59 million dogs). The size of the EU market is estimated to be about 6 million tons of pet food, produced by around 450 companies, and worth some 9 billion € a year. Direct employment is estimated to be 21000 people and indirect 30000 people.
For the latest figures see FEFAC-plaquette statistique 2010