By Matthias Vogelsang, Animal Nutrition President EMEA, ADM
Africa’s growing demand for affordable, nutritious animal protein is creating new opportunities and challenges for the animal nutrition industry.
Drawing on insights and discussions at VIV Africa, three key nutrition trends are emerging that will shape the future of Africa’s animal protein industry.
- Precision nutrition and technology-driven solutions
As Africa’s feed market continues to expand, improving feed efficiency and animal performance is becoming increasingly important.
Poultry and dairy producers face persistent challenges, including variable feed quality, animal health concerns, biosecurity risks and economic constraints.
Precision nutrition, supported by advanced analytical technologies, can help address these issues through more accurate feed formulation and tailored nutritional solutions.
These approaches can improve animal health and welfare, enhance productivity, reduce losses and support more sustainable production.
- Feed efficiency, quality and safety
With food security remaining a priority across African markets, producers must maximise the value of every feed input. Improving feed efficiency is essential to making animal protein more affordable and accessible.
Specialty ingredients and functional nutrition solutions can help producers get more from locally available feed materials, despite variations in quality and composition.
Addressing mycotoxin risks, supporting gut health, improving digestive efficiency and strengthening immune resilience will be particularly important in boosting animal performance and reducing production losses.
- Regionalisation, sustainability and traceability
Global developments are also influencing Africa’s animal nutrition landscape. Regionalisation and increasing regulatory expectations around sustainability and traceability are encouraging producers to rethink their sourcing and production strategies.
Greater use of locally available feed resources, supported by solutions that improve feed quality and consistency, can help strengthen supply chains while supporting more sustainable animal production.
Ultimately, the future of African animal nutrition will depend on combining innovation with practical, locally relevant solutions.
As demand for affordable animal protein grows, improving productivity, feed quality and efficiency will be essential to strengthening food security across the continent.
Matthias Vogelsang is President of Animal Nutrition at Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM) company, leading the firm’s animal nutrition businesses across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). He has nearly two decades of experience in senior leadership roles at ADM and holds degrees in management, economics and agricultural economics.
