Economic feasibility of Eco-feed concepts in the Netherlands : PPS RENEW (LWV20147)

Summary

The PPP RENEW (side and residual streams for Eco feed application in the Netherlands, with specific attention for the design of circular food systems and consumer acceptance) was launched in February 2021. The project is a public private partnership and its aim is to design and valorise Eco feed concepts. Eco feed is conceptualized as a circular feed product for non ruminant animals, based on side and residual streams collected from retail and foodservice outlets. In this project, we consider only Eco feed for pigs and poultry (layers and broilers). The research focuses on 3 main research questions (RQs): RQ.1) Which conditions are necessary to create a positive business case for Eco Feed in the Netherlands, from economic, environmental and animal welfare point of view? RQ.2) Which conditions are necessary to create consumer and food value chain acceptance of Eco feed products? RQ.3) Which scenarios contribute to the development of Eco feed concepts? This report presents the findings on task 1.1 in RENEW (related to RQ.1) and addresses the analysis of economic conditions in the business case for eco feed. In collaboration with the private partners, a set of options and selection criteria have been formulated and visualised in a process scheme from sourcing of suitable streams at catering level, towards collection & processing within feed production and delivery of feed at farm level. An estimation has been made of associated costs and benefits for the different steps in the process scheme, with the option to model outcomes for different scenarios of feed composition and targeted animals. A comparison has been made to conventional feed.