PHOTO: ALLTECH
CONFERENCE ▶▶▶
“It actually means that we are taking care of the health of the planet and the people who share it.” This is of increasing im- portance as population growth puts extra pressure on our re- sources. Setting the table for 10 billion people by 2060 needs 70% more food. An impossible challenge? Heather White, au- thor of ‘One Green Thing’ knows that it is individual actions that lead to a culture shift towards solutions. “Every genera-
Urgency for poultry industry to act
If the poultry sessions at the Alltech One Ideas conference showed the attendees one thing, it was that the industry needs to act. Margins are volatile and the pressure to become more sustainable is on. Switching to cage-free layers and higher welfare broiler production are seen as a challenge by some, but may be the way forward, both in profitability and wider public acceptance. Rabobank chief analyst, Justin Sherrard is cautiously optimistic about global poultry growth in the coming quarters. “Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict we have trimmed our expectations a little but we still expect growth. That said, our forecast for the first quarter 2023 is somewhat worrying. We have a whole range of challenges ahead of us and we run the risk that we are going to be squeezed in terms of margins.” Sherrard acknowledged that the high price of feed ingredi- ents is on everyone’s mind right now. “This puts our margins under pressure, indeed. At the same time we are seeing many outbreaks of avian influenza which makes supply of poultry protein tight, especially in the EU. The resulting nice price levels compensate for high feed costs to some extent.”
Potential Sherrard has more reasons to be optimistic. “A very tight labour market is leading to higher wages, offsetting inflation. In general, we see chick- en meat consumption rates consistently going up and this appears to be independent of price.” On top of that Sherrard noted that we have to realize the growth potential of our industry. It is huge: “We need to act on the things we are good at. There is some complacency in our indus- try. We are incorporating data analysis into our production but at the same time we are a decade behind on crop farming. Besides that, we should interact and learn more from our consumers; we hardly interact with them and focus too much on producing and selling whole birds, instead of tuning into the demand for complete dishes, including poul- try protein. Last but not least, we see potential in the so called ‘higher welfare’ markets. Marketing products as ‘better for the bird and better for your family’ has huge potential and could eventually offset the margin squeeze.”
Sustainable Phillip Wilkinson, board director of the largest agricultural business in the Ukraine (MHP), emphasised the importance of sustainability. “It boils down to this,” he said, “unless you can show that you have a sus- tainable plan for your poultry production, you won’t get any investors
8 ▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 5, 2022
Philip Wilkinson (r), Everton Krabbe and Reg Smith (l) discussed sustainability and animal welfare in the poultry sessions.
in the long run. Sustainable production is fundamental and there is an urgency for the agricultural community to act upon this.” Wilkinson continued, “sustainable production is one of the edges by which to se- cure new sales opportunities as well. We have to ask ourselves how higher welfare production – also an edge to secure new sales – fits into the definition of sustainability, as there is friction between the higher feed intake of cage-free layers and slower growing broilers, and sustainability. There is a lot of misunderstanding about animal welfare and sustainability and it is up to our industry to explain the facts and not sail blindly on consumer perception.” According to Wilkinson, the world is moving at different speeds when it comes to welfare. Some markets are ready and willing to pay for cage-free eggs, for example, while others are more worried about getting protein on the dining ta- ble. “In the high welfare markets there will always be some pressure to go to the next level and it is up to our industry to show what is feasi- ble and what not. And we should realize that we can never get every- one on board. Some animal welfare pressure groups are not in the game for animal welfare. They are just anti meat-eaters, trying to make farming as unprofitable as possible to push us out of business.”
tion stands on the shoulders of the past and it is safe to say that we are our ancestors’ wildest dream. We have the tech- nology and knowledge to make change happen, we just have to keep asking ourselves, where do we want to stand, 30 years from now? What will be our legacy? With that mindset, instead of carrying on with past principles, the possibilities are endless.”
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