High grain prices decrease compound feed production

“Usually, January is the month when there is a decrease in the levels of grain processing output , and in February it starts to recover, but this year, the picture is different. Thus, in February, there was in fact, a collapse in the production of flour and animal feed in the country,” said Vladimir Petrichenko CEO of “ProZerno”, one of the major Russian grain company.

According to him, in February this year, production of flour amounted to 753.5 thousand tonnes. This is  not different from January 2013, but 7% lower than in February 2012. “In the animal feed industry this is something unusual – production in February appeared to be significantly lower than in January,”  he said, saying that, in January 1.755 million tonnes of feed was produced, while in February the level of production fell to 1.659 million tonnes ( by 13%).

Speaking on the future prospects of the feed sector, Petrichenko said he was not waiting for restoration of growth. “Earlier in March compared with February, there was an increase by 8-10%, but this year we will not see this,” – he said. Petrichenko pointed out that in March of 2012 in Russia 1.680 million tonnes of feed was produced. “This year’s production, at best, will be at the same level, but probably we will not see any growth,” – he said.