The stocks of agricultural raw materials for feed production will be enough for 20 days, up to a month: if alternative supply channels are not activated, the stop of feed production will be inevitable and animals will have to be killed in the stables. The alarm comes from Assalzoo, the national association of zootechnical food producers. The conflict in Ukraine is having serious repercussions on the market for agricultural raw materials, especially corn. In fact, not only did exports from Ukraine, one of Italy’s main suppliers of maize, fail: now some Eastern European countries, Hungary in the lead, have decided to block sales abroad to guarantee the national market.
At the moment the only viable alternative appears to be to turn to the American market, the United States and Argentina in the lead, but to get the ships to arrive from there it is necessary to take into account from 5 to 8 weeks. National production, on the other hand, has been decreasing from year to year, and from the self-sufficiency of fifteen years ago we have reached a scarce coverage of 50% of the needs. According to Assalzoo, an immediate incentive plan would be needed to encourage the cultivation in Italy of additional corn areas, the sowing of which will start in a few days. For animal feed, about 9 million tons of corn are needed, compared to Italian production. a scant 6 million.
However, the problem of the supply of raw materials for animal feed is not only an Italian emergency. Indeed, the European Commission is considering activating aid for private storage for pigmeat and using the crisis reserve of the Common Agricultural Policy, which amounts to 450 million euros, to cope with the impact of supply disruptions from ‘Ukraine on the European agri-food sector.