State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian Parliament, has passed in the first reading a bill making the production of feed additives, enzymes and veterinary pharmaceuticals eligible for broad state aid.

The purpose of the measure is to bolster the industry’s financial and economical sustainability in the face of the current geopolitical situation and logistics problems, the lawmakers said in the explanatory note to the bill.

The bill, scheduled to come into force on September 1, 2024, should give feed additive manufacturers access to state aid in the form of soft loans and partial reimbursement of investment costs from the money allotted by the federal budget to the Russian Agricultural Ministry. In 2024, Russian budget plans to spend Rub 558 billion ($9 billion) on supporting agriculture, Dmitry Patrushev, Russian Agricultural Minister has recently unveiled.

Under the existing rules, manufacturers and processors of agricultural commodities are eligible for state aid. The lawmakers explained that the production of some feed vitamins, amino acids, and enzymes does not involve using agricultural raw materials, so the industry had no access to state money. The bill is due to close that gap.

State aid in the form of soft loans is particularly important for the Russian economy, as the country’s key interest rate remains extremely high (16%). This means that Russian commercial banks are finding it increasingly difficult to provide loans with low interest rates, thereby limiting the availability of affordable credit for businesses, the government has recently said in a statement. The high cost of bank loans is a pervasive issue for the Russian economy. In November 2023, several state corporations, including the Russian Railway monopoly RZD, space agency Roscosmoc, and state airline Aeroflot, appealed to the Russian government, seeking interest rate subsidies.

The lawmakers have not elaborated on what logistics challenges prompt the authorities to subject the feed additive industry to state aid. There is a chance this is a reference to growing problems with foreign trade with China. Chinese banks scrutinise all transactions involving Russian clients since early 2024, delaying and occasionally rejecting money transfers.

China holds a dominant position in the Russian feed additive market, accounting for roughly 85% of imports to the country.

Consumption of insects continues to pose a dilemma across the globe with EU ministers recently criticising Hungary, which currently holds the EU presidency, on its perceived opposition on novel foods.

Agriculture and Fisheries Council ministers recently discussed Hungary’s position, which advocates the protection of Europe’s culinary traditions from novel foods, such as edible insects and vegetarian alternatives to dairy and meat.

Latest European Commission figures show that consumption of vegetarian alternatives to meat, dairy and seafood products has risen fivefold since 2011 but consumers in Hungary are resistant to insect consumption. A study conducted in 2023 found that Hungarian consumers are much more dismissive of insect consumption than the European average despite the majority (60%) being aware of its potential benefits (nutritional value and environmentally friendly production method).

While Hungary has tightened domestic legislation on insects with agriculture minister Istvan Nagy stating that products that contain insect protein will have to be visually identifiable and separable in grocery stores, there are still insect companies in the country that are expanding.

Insect producer Agroloop is building a plant for the industrial production of feed insects at Budapest Airport, which is due to come on line in the autumn. It is significantly expanding its existing larvae breeding capacities for the European market with plant investment of more than €20 million. By the end of 2024, the agrotech company is expected to be receiving 120 tonnes of raw material per day to produce around 10,000 tonnes of end product in their 13,000 sqm plant.

But while Europe hesitates on the extent of insect for feed and food, Singapore has recently approved the consumption of 16 insect species, including various species in different stages of growth, highlighting the potential nutritional and environmental benefits of eating insects.

Aquaculture researchers in Singapore say soybean process water could prove adequate as a substrate for raising single-cell organisms intended for in animal feed.

Singapore is looking to improve food security by reducing imports and producing more food locally, according to Diana Chan, deputy director of the Aquaculture Innovation Center at Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore. At the same time, she said, the rising cost of fishmeal and a desire to reduce food waste has increased interest in using food waste byproducts in aquafeed.

“With the rising feed cost due to fishmeal availability for feed production, food waste valorization as a source of potential animal feed ingredients or additives has been gaining traction locally,” Chan said, “especially when the country is moving toward zero waste management which also helps in promoting environmental sustainability.”

Because the research team had access to process water from a local soybean processing plant, they decided to test the use of that waste water as a culture medium to produce single-cell proteins, which can serve as an alternative protein in place of fishmeal, Chan said.

The resulting single-cell protein product seemed to perform well in a feeding trial published by the journal Scientific Reports. Asian seabass raised on a diet with half of the usual fishmeal content swapped out for the single-cell protein performed as well as those fed a conventional diet, and the experimental diet seemed to result in less variable feed conversion and weight gain.

The single-cell protein may contain probiotics that enhance fish gut health and, in turn, promote digestibility and the absorption of nutrients, Chan said. And the protein product is likely to prove cost-competitive with fishmeal giving growing demands on limited natural resources, Stefan Wuertz, co-founder of the Singapore Center for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering at Nanyang Technological University.

However, there’s still some work to optimize the use of soybean process water in single-cell protein production before such a product could be produced at scale, Chan said.

At 21.7 million tonnes, feed production in Germany in the 2023 calendar year was around 360,000 tonnes or 1.6% less than in the previous 12 months. This is according to the latest figures from the German animal feed association, DVT.

However, the year-on-year contraction represents a partial easing in the long-term contraction in the German feed sector. Figures from the European Feed Manufacturers’ Association FEFAC put the volume of feed produced in Germany in 2022 at just under 22.2 million tonnes. This was 5.8% lower than the previous year.

The decline in total national feed output is attributed by DVT President Cord Schiplage mainly to reduced sales of pig feeds. For this segment, production was down approximately 500,000 tonnes or 5.8% to 8 million tonnes for 2023. Fattening pig numbers in the November census had fallen significantly year-on-year by as much as 11.6%, he said. Overall in 2023, the country’s swine population contracted by 1.4% to 9.6 million.

In contrast, feed production in Germany expanded in 2023 for the other main market segments. For cattle, output volume was up around 100,000 million tonnes for the year to 6.5 million tonnes, while there was an 80,000 million tonnes increase in poultry feed production to 6.3 million tonnes.

In terms of revenue, DVT figures also indicate a drop in the value of feed sales in 2023 to EUR 9.4 billion. This compares with EUR 10.5 billion for the previous year. According to Schiplage, the increased availability of feed ingredients on global markets last year drove the decline in sales value — along with price and competitive pressures. During the comparative period of 2022, he said, raw material and energy costs had been exceptionally high.

In 2023, there were 276 compound feed companies in Germany, according to DVT. This was five fewer than 12 months previously.

Provisional figures for 2023 from FEFAC points to a further reduction in compound feed production in the EU-27 by 2% to 144.3 million tonnes.

A group of scientists from Siberia claimed it had developed a cost-effective technology for the sterilisation of feed with a gas mixture. Long-term feed storage bears the risk of bacterial contamination and the emergence of moulds, producing mycotoxins, the scientists have said. “These substances threaten the health of animals and birds, as feed spoils, also losing its nutritional value,” the researchers have warned.

To prevent mycotoxin containation, heat treatment is often used. In Russia, the existing technical regulations prescribed to perform it for at least half an hour at a temperature of around 70 C. The relatively high cost of heat treatment is believed to be the key problem. Some farmers opt not to perform it at all, seeking cost reduction.

The scientists claimed they built a pilot installation for treating feed with a special gas composition. “The cost of this unit, depending on the volume and tasks, will range between 200,000 ($2,100) and 400,000 ($4,200) roubles,” the researchers said. The unit is expected to run in experimental mode for the next 6 months, after which the scientist hopes to put the technology into industrial use.

Sergey Leonov, one of the authors of the study, emphasised that the technology is absolutely safe for animals and end users, and its use will help farmers mitigate costs. There is no information on the type of gas planned to be used. The only hint the scientists provided is that a similar approach can be found in other industries.

Gas sterilisation is widely used in the Russian healthcare system, where almost always it is performed with ethylene oxide. The prepared gas mixture is launched into a special chamber, disinfecting medical tools under low temperature and pressure for a few hours. The technology is believed to kill all pathogenic microorganisms and, indeed, is associated with low costs. During the process, ethylene oxide is not wasted and can be used over and over again.

However, there is no information a similar approach has ever been tried in the feed industry.