Challenges and opportunities for animal husbandry

Introduction: JOM Ratcliff (food and agriculture consulting services, UK) Introduction: the globalization of the food industry is accelerating at an alarming rate The emergence of e-commerce has changed the supply and demand of global animal production, and the rationalization of global food industry companies is developing at a relentless speed As a result of global media coverage, companies and governments are no longer independent of public opinion and international environmental pressures The demonstrations during the World Trade Organization (WTO) conference demonstrated that public opinion can rapidly influence every corner of the world The impact of globalization will continue in the Asia Pacific region and lead to fundamental changes in animal husbandry We have seen the impact of European and Japanese research and development in the area of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs), pesticide free animal production and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) The impact of maintaining its strong export market in the Asia Pacific region is inevitable In many ways, the food industry has become a victimizer of its own success A variety of selection and crop improvement and breeding have improved the function of food, changed the balance between supply and demand, and put pressure on global food prices This inevitably requires the animal husbandry industry to reduce costs and improve production performance It also puts pressure on animal welfare and the prohibition of antibiotic growth promoters and other drugs in feed However, the food supply chain should always focus on meeting the needs of consumers Today's consumers take the adequate supply and quality of food for granted They pay more attention to food safety and animal welfare The challenge for nutritionists is to increase yields and adapt to increasing pressures through the use of new biotechnology and management practices Demand outlook: the total consumption of meat, egg and milk is equal to the per capita consumption multiplied by the total population Although the world population is growing at an annual rate of 1.3%, the absolute number of population varies in different regions (Table 1) Table 1 world population distribution (change compared with the previous year,%) 2000 2005 2009 US 0.85 0.8 0.81 EU 0.12 0.00-0.11 Japan 0.20 0.08-0.07 Asia 1.56 1.41 1.35 East Europe 0.09 0.21 0.11 Latin America 1.48 1.34 1.24 Obviously, Asia has the fastest population growth In addition to the high market demand of the region itself, the Asia Pacific region also benefits from the growing import demand of Japan and Europe The population of these regions is growing steadily, but the market is declining in the face of global competition It is clear that the export and internal demand markets in the Asia Pacific region will face huge competition from the United States and South America To sum up, the demand market in the Asia Pacific region will grow strongly in the next 10 years This will bring a bright future to the market development and export opportunities of the region Asia Pacific problems and global impacts Europe, the Middle East and Japan continue to have a significant impact on animal production outside their own regions The significant increase in Asia Pacific exports in the last 18 months has exposed many countries to animal welfare standards and feed regulations that are being implemented in Europe One of the most significant effects is the prohibition of antibiotic growth promoters and related products in pig and chicken feed In addition to Apramycin and Flavomycin, the European community has banned all antibiotic growth promoters, using alternative products to replace the long-term use of viagramycin and bacitracin zinc The banning of antibiotics in animal feed to avoid the potential risk of antibiotic resistance to human health shows that European politicians are moving rapidly to focus on food safety, but this is based on no sufficient scientific evidence (scan, 1996) It has recently been announced that the European Community intends to ban all antibiotic growth promoters by 2006 Although Apramycin and Flavomycin are allowed to be used in Europe, many poultry companies are no longer using both antibiotics in broiler feed due to pressure from supermarkets This leads to a series of problems, which will be further discussed in this paper In the next two years, pig feed will be the same as broiler feed, without any antibiotic growth promoters The influence of supermarkets has no limit on the demand of export markets Large European supermarkets, such as Tesco, Carrefour and Auchan, are asking about Asia Pacific expansion Tesco is expanding 75% of its new stores outside the UK By the end of 2001, more than 40% of its retail outlets will be located overseas The emergence of Tesco in Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia and South Korea, as well as the emergence of other Western supermarkets, such as Wal Mart and Carrefour, has accelerated market changes in the region Lotus Tesco's supermarket chain in Thailand has signalled that its supply needs to change Which one should be considered first: consumer pressure or supermarket demand - that's the subject of the debate However, the global impact of the European consumer and supermarket debate over GMO is indisputable People around the world have witnessed the wave of anti GM food in Europe, and now focus on animal feed Environmental groups, such as Greenpeace, have put pressure on the feed industry across Europe to boycott the use of GM soybeans and corn in feed As a result, since June this year, five major supermarkets in the UK have banned genetically modified soybeans and corn from animal feed Consumers in the UK support this result because supermarkets have yet to see significant cost increases to date Support will change if separation, transportation, storage, and GM raw material testing costs extra Due to the development of GMO in Europe, many countries outside Europe have been asked to evaluate their attitude towards CMU Many countries in the Asia Pacific region follow the example of Europeans, asking themselves with a strong public feeling, "genetically modified food is not suitable for Europeans, why is it suitable for us"? CP in Thailand has announced that it has grown non GM soybeans in Brazil and China due to export demand from Europe, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait Similarly, Japan is taking a firm stand on GM feed exports from Australia, New Zealand and China Japan's influence in the region is directly related to its importance as a major pig and poultry producer, including China, in the export market of the Asia Pacific region Japanese consumers hold similar views on the health and drug residue of meat products to those of Westerners Japan's demand for "drug free" (excluding the use of anticoccidial drugs) chicken and interest in free range animals and organic meat are on the rise (Suzuki et al., 1998) With the development of global food companies, it's not just government departments that are under pressure from consumers Under pressure from the global public, American fast food has been forced to review their attitudes towards animal welfare, feed additives and GWO McDonald's recently announced that it has asked its suppliers to use non GM animal feed at McDonald's chains in the UK, Sweden, Germany and Denmark All in all, we expect that problems originating outside the Asia Pacific region will continue to affect markets within and outside the region As we have seen, the challenges we face in the future can be divided into two levels First, we have challenges from internal production - production performance (growth rate, reproductive function), health and uniformity; second, challenges from external environment - consumer needs, regulations and welfare So internally, we need to focus on what we are doing and how we can improve it At the same time, we should pay attention to the development of the global situation, the external trend and its possible impact on future production.