This week AgriLand published figures on some of the obvious commodities that are imported into Ireland for animal feed, but there are many more products imported that you might not think of.

4,035,029t of animal foodstuffs were imported in 2018, while 3,056,791t were imported in 2017. That’s a 32% increase in imports of animal foodstuffs to the Republic of Ireland in 2018.

By-products of food processing account for many of these animal foodstuffs. Some of these ingredients are obvious like beet pulp and by-products of brewing and distilling, can be seen in the picture above, but more are a little less ordinary.

A list of some of these products is outlined below. They range from waste from the sugar industry from countries like Egypt and Switzerland; to oil, cake and solid residues from palm nuts or kernels from Indonesia and Malaysia; to vegetable waste from Argentina and Hungary.

Some examples of what’s on the list:
  • Beet pulp and other waste of the sugar industry;
  • Bran, sharps and residues from milling maize, peas, wheat and other cereals;
  • Brewing or distilling dregs and waste;
  • Cereal straw and husks (unprepared);
  • Dog or cat food for retail sale;
  • Lucerne meal and pellets;
  • Oil-cake and solid residues from the extraction of fats or oils from the following:
    • Coconut;
    • Groundnuts;
    • Linseed;
    • Palm nuts or kernels;
    • Rape or colza seeds;
    • Soya beans;
    • Sunflower seeds;
  • Swedes, mangolds, fodder roots and other fodder products (whether or not in the form of pellets);
  • Vegetable residues and by-products;
  • Wine lees; argol.

Stay tuned to AgriLand for more data from the CSO!

AgriLand must stress that this raw data was provided by the CSO and indicates trends, some figures may be subject to change.