The major gathering of the grain and feed industry, IDMA Istanbul 2026 Exhibition, took place at the Istanbul Expo Center from June 25 to 27. During the fourth session of the concurrently held ‘IDMA Global Grain and Milling Forum,’ the feed sector was analyzed on global, regional, and national scales. Featuring high-level panelists, this critical session addressed key strategic topics ranging from global supply crises and new EU environmental regulations to Turkey’s biosecurity sensitivities and the practical realities of livestock production.

Gathering all global actors of the grain and feed processing industries under one roof, the IDMA Istanbul Exhibition took place at the Istanbul Expo Center (IFM) from June 25 to 27, 2026. Held concurrently with the exhibition, the IDMA Global Grain and Milling Forum addressed the most critical challenges shaping the industry’s future with the participation of global leaders. Within the framework of the forum, a high-level panel moderated by Cemalettin Kanaş, Editor-in-Chief of Feed Planet Magazine, focused on a broad spectrum moving from the new routes of macro-commodity trading to Europe’s tightening green regulations, and from the volumetric strength of Turkey’s feed industry to the practical realities of livestock production.

Drawing the global horizon of the session, international commodity expert Pedro Nonay demonstrated the asymmetric impacts of geopolitical fragmentation on supply chains with his years of deep market experience. Alexander Döring, Secretary General of FEFAC, the voice of the European feed industry, delivered a strategic and first-hand breakdown of Brussels’ shifting legal barriers regarding food security and traceability. Representing the industrial front, Cem Taşkaldıran, Board Member of Ofis Yem, brought the manufacturer’s perspective to the stage by combining data-driven analysis with the massive growth volume of the Turkish compound feed market and the biosafety regulations hindering domestic production. Closing the value chain, Prof. Dr. Nizamettin Şenköylü, Vice President of the Animal Nutrition Science Association, presented the nutritional dynamics and the public misinformation surrounding animal protein supply with his 57-year academic and empirical career.

‘JUST-IN-CASE’ LOGISTICS AND THE SOUTHWARD SHIFT OF GLOBAL GRAIN

Opening the discussion, international commodity expert Pedro Nonay urged the audience to view the global agricultural market not as an isolated economic sector, but as an interconnected organism. “Think of energy as the circulatory system, food and agriculture as the digestive system, geopolitics as the nervous system, and climate change as the reactive skin,” Nonay illustrated. He emphasized that a shock to any single system triggers immediate trauma across the entire supply chain.

A central theme of Nonay’s analysis was the critical role of maritime chokepoints, drawing a compelling parallel between energy logistics and agricultural flows. “While the energy sector constantly monitors the Strait of Hormuz, the international agribusiness community must look at the Bosphorus Strait with the exact same strategic gravity,” he argued, labeling it the “Hormuz of Agri-commodities.”

Supporting this strategic importance with concrete data, Nonay highlighted the immense volume of global agricultural trade moving through this vital corridor, noting that the Bosphorus facilitates over 30% of global wheat exports, 15% of corn, and more than 60% of the world’s sunflower oil trade. Recent history, he explained, proved that throttling this channel spikes international prices exactly like an oil crisis in the Middle East.

Pedro Nonay

This volatility, Nonay explained, has fundamentally altered international logistics. Agribusiness has migrated from the cost-optimized “just-in-time” model to a risk-mitigated “just-in-case” strategy. “In today’s market, if you don’t secure buffer stocks, you are operating just-too-late,” he warned.

Turning to demand-side dynamics, Nonay asserted that proximity to destination markets now dictates survival, overtaking traditional asset ownership. For a transcontinental hub like Turkey, he presented a dual reality. On one hand, domestic demographics show a sharp contraction, with fertility rates dropping from 2.4 to 1.4, well below the 2.1 replacement threshold. On the other hand, Nonay pointed out that Turkey possesses a unique “geopolitical hedge” through its booming tourism sector and its ability to supply neighboring regions during structural deficits. Looking long-term, however, he noted that the global center of gravity is moving southward: “By 2050, one out of every four people on earth will reside in Africa,” reshaping the destination maps for global grain trading.

BRUSSELS’ GREEN WALLS AND THE ‘COMPLEMENTARY’ RAW MATERIALS

Shifting the lens to regional policy, Alexander Döring, Secretary General of FEFAC, broke down the European Union’s evolving approach to food security. Döring explained that Brussels has transitioned from pure environmental idealism to a pragmatic trade philosophy known as “Open Strategic Autonomy.” The EU is increasingly using its massive consumer market to set global sustainability standards, making access to the single market conditional upon compliance with European ecological benchmarks.

Alexander Döring

At the heart of this shift is the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). Döring described the EUDR as a structural departure from traditional chain of custody solutions, demanding complete geo-localization down to the specific plot of land where crops like soy are grown. “It acts as a de facto non-tariff trade barrier,” he noted, meaning that international suppliers failing to provide verifiable traceability back to the soy field face exclusion from European ports.

However, Döring also shared a major, overlooked industrial success story born out of Europe’s push to reduce its historical dependence on imported soybean meal: the massive scale-up of domestic rapeseed meal and sunflower meal.

Driven by the biodiesel boom and processing innovations, crushers have successfully minimised anti-nutritional factors and fibre. “Fifteen years ago, rapeseed meal was strictly restricted to ruminants due to palatability limitations. Today, it is a staple in monogastric feeding,” Döring stated. Furthermore, recent refinements have elevated sunflower meal quality to a point where it easily enters sensitive poultry formulations.

Reacting to this, the Kanaş raised a critical point regarding how these ingredients are framed in industrial discourse. “Naming is very important,” Kanaş intervened. “When we hear these raw materials labelled as ‘alternatives,’ it misleads the market. Instead of ‘alternative raw materials,’ classifying them as ‘complementary raw materials’ is a far more accurate and professional approach.”

Cemalettin Kanaş

Döring agreed but concluded with a warning about a competitiveness paradox. While Brussels mandates carbon reduction and methane-mitigating technologies (like the innovative additive), it places heavy financial pressures on local farmers. This has sparked fierce debate over whether the EU may simply export its environmental footprint while importing food from less-regulated regions.

VOLUMETRIC GROWTH AND BIOSAFETY WALLS IN THE TURKISH FEED SECTOR

Representing the industrial front, Cem Taşkaldıran, Board Member of Ofis Yem, presented a data-driven projection of Turkey’s compound feed market, addressing the structural challenges and future expectations facing a sector with high growth potential.

Taşkaldıran revealed that between 2015 and 2025, Turkey’s feed production grew by an impressive 50%, rising from 20 million tonnes to 30.7 million tonnes, consistently outpacing the global average growth rate. This performance secures Turkey a 2.1% share in the global feed market, which reached 1.444 billion tonnes in 2025 (with a 2.9% annual increase). Across Europe, Turkey shares the leading league with industrial giants such as Spain (28 million tonnes), Germany (21 million tonnes), and France (19 million tonnes).

Taşkaldıran noted that contrary to global trends which are predominantly poultry-driven, Turkey’s market architecture is uniquely weighted toward ruminant nutrition. Ruminant feed dominates national production with a 59% share (comprising 8.2 million tonnes of dairy feed and 7.6 million tonnes of cattle fattening feed), while poultry feed holds a 39% share (consisting of 6 million tonnes of broiler and 3 million tonnes of layer rations).

However, this massive production engine requires a significant volume of external inputs. Taşkaldıran shared the data, stating, “To produce 30 million tonnes of feed, we import approximately 17 million tonnes of raw materials.” When finished product exports and processing losses are deducted, the net domestic raw material deficit stands firmly at 15 million tonnes, driven primarily by corn (4.2 million tonnes) and soy derivatives (approximately 5 million tonnes). Although the 2025/2026 harvest season passed fruitfully thanks to record rainfall, helping to ease import pressures to some extent in the short term, the structural raw material deficit remains significant.

Cem Taşkaldıran

Taşkaldıran evaluated that aligning the Biosafety legislation more closely with the EU acquis would bring significant contributions to the sector in terms of combating food inflation, strengthening supply security, and supporting sustainable production. He emphasized his belief that raw material supply security holds strategic importance for the compound feed sector, which is expected to sustain its growth above the world average. He further noted that when evaluating production increases, a holistic approach that simultaneously addresses production capacity, effective resource utilization, and foreign trade policies is of paramount importance for our country.

THE GLOBAL STRENGTH OF TURKISH MILLING AND FEED ENGINEERING

Emphasizing the technological transformation of the sector and the advanced level reached by the domestic industry, Taşkaldıran stated: “The growth of the compound feed sector has not only meant an increase in production volumes, but has also fostered a powerful, mutually supportive, and evolving industrial ecosystem around this expansion. As the sector grew, numerous ancillary industries—such as feed machinery, automation systems, grain storage and silo technologies, transport, and process equipment—experienced significant development. Today, an investor wishing to establish a new feed mill in Turkey can procure all the necessary machinery, equipment, and technology from domestic manufacturers at world-class standards.

Thanks to this advancement, Turkish companies have gone beyond merely meeting the needs of the domestic market; they have transformed into key global players that export technology and machinery to numerous countries, holding high competitiveness in international markets.”

“ACCESSIBLE PROTEIN FOR THE MASSES MUST BE FIERCELY PROTECTED: THE STATE MUST FAVOR AND SUPPORT POULTRY PRODUCTION”

Closing the loop on the value chain, Prof. Dr. Nizamettin Şenköylü, Vice President of the Animal Nutrition Science Association, analyzed how these feeds perform at the farm level. Looking back over a 57-year professional career, including his undergraduate education at the Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Animal Science, Şenköylü offered a candid retrospective. “Compared to 30 or 40 years ago, our overall self-sufficiency has declined,” he noted, highlighting that Turkey now imports over 500,000 head of live cattle and nearly 300,000 tonnes of red meat annually to balance supply.

Prof. Dr. Nizamettin Şenköylü

Şenköylü explained that Turkey›s national inventory of 17.5 million cattle—made up of 50% purebred culture animals, 45% crossbreds, and 5% native breeds—is constrained by geographical limitations. Explaining why the country relies heavily on intensive indoor housing balanced by industrial compound feeds, he stated, “Our natural pastures are arid compared to Northern Europe and are no longer utilized for widespread pasture-based livestock farming as they used to be.” Conversely, he praised the small ruminant sector, noting that the national flock of 46–47 million sheep and 17 million goats fits Turkey’s steppe-dominated topography perfectly, welcoming recent ministry incentives for this sector.

Prof. Dr. Şenköylü stated: “However, looking at the current architecture of dairy farming, the distribution of animals across more than 1,100,000 enterprises stands at approximately 65% for farms with fewer than 50 head, 25% for farms with 50–300 head, and around 10% for farms with over 300 head. If this distribution could be transformed to 10%, 80%, and 10% respectively through targeted support tailored for small and medium-sized enterprises, annual milk production would reach 30 million tonnes. Furthermore, if dairy cattle are gradually transitioned from the Holstein breed to Simmental (a dual-purpose milk and meat breed), our meat production potential would increase by 25–30%. Consequently, the foreign currency spent annually on importing feeder cattle would decrease by the same margin. In addition, the official authorities should attach special importance to education within dairy and fattening operations, organizing training courses specifically for farmers in small-capacity enterprises.”

The brightest spot in Turkish animal husbandry remains the highly integrated poultry meat and egg sectors. Turkey produces 2.8 million tonnes of broiler meat annually, exporting 300,000 to 400,000 tonnes, and yields nearly 19 billion eggs per year, exporting up to 25% of that volume to foreign markets.

However, Prof. Dr. Şenköylü expressed deep frustration and resentment over the public misinformation and disinformation targeting these sectors. Heavily criticizing unscientific media campaigns that label eggs and poultry meat as health risks, Şenköylü cited examples of prominent medical experts who had made such statements in the past but later publicly apologized and reversed their stances on egg consumption. “The cholesterol in eggs is not harmful; in fact, our liver utilizes it to produce certain compounds,” he asserted. He further emphasized, “Claims suggesting that poultry meat contains hormones are completely baseless and irrational absurdities... Whether factory-farmed or organic, there are absolutely no hormones in chicken meat.” He concluded with an institutional plea: “Since swine protein is not produced in Turkey, poultry meat and eggs are our public’s primary, cheapest, and most accessible sources of animal protein. The state must not allow unverified public claims to damage these locomotive sectors; instead, it must actively support them.”

CONCLUSION: EVERYTHING IS RELATED TO EVERYTHING

In his closing synthesis, the moderator tied the various strands of the panel together, emphasizing the multi-layered nature of the session. The forum illustrated that the modern feed industry can no longer operate in isolation. A geopolitical bottleneck in the Bosphorus, a traceability mandate from Brussels, a biosafety restriction from Ankara, or a public health misconception on television all send immediate shockwaves through the livestock value chain. For transcontinental players like Turkey, navigating this new matrix requires a careful balance of smart regulatory reform at home and bold technological expansion abroad.