French feed production up 1.1%, despite lower demand for pig feed
French animal feed production modestly grew in 2025, reaching 18.88 million tons – a 1.1% year-on-year increase. The French National Union of the Animal Nutrition Industry (SNIA) shared those data. The growth, however, was not related to developments in the pig industry.
Growth was largely driven by increased demand for cattle feed. In the pig sector, however, an opposite trend can be observed. Production of pig feed decreased by 0.9% to almost 4.1 million tons. In the 4th quarter of 2025, feed production for pigs had dropped by 2.8% when compared to the same quarter in 2024.
Cattle feed drives growth
Feed for dairy cows showed an increase of 4.6% to almost 3 million tons while products for other cattle increased by 0.2% to 1.16 million tons. The lion’s share of over the more than 8 million tons produced went to poultry production. That was a 0.9% year-on-year increase.
Laying hens took 2.7 million tons, an increase of just 0.7%, Broiler chickens were fed some 3.4 million tons, which was 4.3% more. Feed for ducks went down 5.5% to almost 950,000 tons.
In addition, the French feed industry also produced 720,000 tons for goats and sheep as well as 578,000 tons of feed for other farm animals like rabbits and horses.
Challenges for the French pig industry
SNIA said that feed production for cattle had grown despite a complicated sanitary situation and the continuing decrease of the cattle herd. The French pig industry encountered problems because of difficulties by the transfer of farms to younger farmers.
At a joint meeting of organisations in the feed sector, SNIA commented, “One of the first challenges is to keep the jobs in the industry attractive to support the generational renewal. The competitiveness of our companies is strongly linked to innovation, whether it´s about more agile purchase strategies, better formulas to improve the feed effectiveness or the necessary modernisation of the production facilities.”
