Asia's Growing Appetite for Feed Additives

India and China are currently the top feed additives exporters worldwide, while Russia is a relatively new market for Asian feed additive suppliers. However, feed additive exports from Asia to Russia have increased significantly over the past year, as the country is highly dependent on the Asian market due to western sanctions. This trend is expected to continue in the long term, making Asia a permanent feed additives market for Russia if suppliers can consistently meet their demand.

- Shraddha Warde

The Asia Pacific feed additives market is expected to achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.69 per cent from 2019 to 2024, having been valued at $10.21 billion in 2018. A report by Market Data Forecast attributes the growth of the meat industry in emerging economies such as India and China as the major driver of this market expansion.

According to Volza’s Global Export data, India is a major exporter of feed additives, having exported 6500 shipments in the first two months of 2023 to countries such as Bangladesh, the Philippines and Vietnam. As per the report, China is the top feed additive exporter with 16,818 shipments, followed by the United States with 15,290 shipments. India stands third with 6474 global shipments of feed additives.

In 2022, western countries faced significant sanctions, resulting in Russia importing almost all feed additives from Asia. During the first nine months of 2022, Russia imported 136,000 tonnes of feed additives, marking a 25 per cent increase from the previous year.

Russian companies were initially hesitant to buy feed additives from Chinese firms, but the sanctions imposed by western countries led to a reversal of the situation. In 2022, 86 per cent of feed additives imported by Russia came from China, while imports from other Asian countries such as Indonesia and South Korea also increased. Indonesia’s feed additive export to Russia increased by 27 per cent from the previous year, while South Korea saw a 37 per cent rise in exports to Russia. In contrast, Japan’s export dropped by 77 per cent from the earlier year.