Demands for sustainability may push up prices

Increased focus on sustainability by consumers and governments has made sustainability a “must have” for food and feed producers, and may push up prices, a feed ingredient company chief says.

Erik Visser, chief executive of Denmark-headquartered Hamlet Protein, included the observations in his market outlook for 2024.

“Where consumers have been focusing on animal welfare in the past years, we now see an increasing focus on sustainability from consumers and governments alike. With it, sustainability has moved from being a ‘nice to have’ in corporate strategies to a licence to operate,” said Visser.

“Europe is taking the lead in implementing a wide range of ESG (environment, social, governance) regulations and companies will have to invest time and money to keep up with a changing landscape. That investment may generate an inflationary effect that will need to be priced in.”

Commodity costs

On the issue of whether feed costs will remain stable, Visser said animal protein producers will closely monitor developments in global feed commodities.

“Those price levels will be impacted by El Niño – especially when looking at South America harvests; the continuous war in Ukraine that reduces exports from the region; a possible escalation of the Israel – Hamas conflict spilling over into a regional war; regulation on supply chain in the EU; and new policies adopted by recently elected Argentinian president, to name a few.”

Hamlet Protein Hamlet Protein produces soy-based protein ingredients for young piglet, poultry, and cattle feed at two production plants in Denmark and the US, and also produces an aquafeed ingredient in which the anti-nutritional factors (ANFs) naturally found in soy have been removed in a patented process.

The company claims that when compared to other soy-based substitutes, sea bass fed diets containing its HP AquaSure feed ingredient have improved intestinal health, contributing to enhanced performance.