ForFarmers, a Dutch Feed Maker to Utilize Food Waste as Part of Its Sustainable Farming Efforts

As it revised its 2025 strategy, the group, which produces feed for the ruminant, swine, and poultry sectors, cited a faster-than-expected shift in market trends.

To narrow its focus and address societal concerns such as climate change and animal welfare, ForFarmers will establish a new organisation, which will include its organic feed division Reudink, to develop and market new feed concepts.

"This will begin in the Netherlands. For example, "concepts that use alternative raw materials or incorporate more moist co-products and residual flows from the food industry" are examples, according to ForFarmers.

The European Union's plan to decarbonize its economy by 2050, higher raw material and energy costs, farm consolidation and faster herd reduction, and a tightening labour market, according to the group, had resulted in overcapacity in feed production, putting pressure on its results.

The Netherlands, one of the world's largest agricultural exporters due to its intensive cattle and pig farming, aims to cut nitrogen emissions in half by 2030, prompting farmers to protest plans that may force them to use less fertiliser and reduce livestock.

By 2025, ForFarmers, which operates in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Poland, and the United Kingdom, hopes to achieve a consolidated return on average capital employed of at least 10% based on underlying operating profit. It declined to provide guidance for the current fiscal year, citing changing markets as well as geopolitical and economic uncertainties.

The company reported a 17% drop in third-quarter core profit earlier this month, blaming it on the hot summer, outbreaks of animal diseases, and rising energy costs that it couldn't fully pass on to the supply chain.