The Korean feed market

February, 2016
LNV office, Seoul

1. Size of the Korea livestock sector

Table 1. Number of animals and farms by year by animal

Beef (*Hanwoo)
Yr Dairy cattle Swine Chicken
cattle

Number Number Number Number Number of Number of Number of Number

of animals of farms of animals of farms animals farms animals of farms
(1,000) (1,000) (1,000) (1,000) (1,000) (1,000) (1,000) (1,000)
70 1,286 1,120 24 3 1,126 884 23,633 1,338
75 1,556 1,277 86 9 1,247 654 29,939 1,094
80 1,361 948 180 18 1,784 503 40,130 692
85 2,553 1,048 390 44 2,853 251 51,081 303
90 1,622 620 504 33 4,528 133 74,463 161
95 2,594 519 553 24 6,461 46 85,800 203
00 1,590 290 544 13 8,214 24 102,547 210
01 1,406 235 548 13 8,720 20 102,393 218
02 1,410 212 544 12 8,974 17 101,693 201
03 1,480 188 519 11 9,231 15 99,019 144
04 1,666 189 497 10 8,908 13 106,736 131
05 1,819 192 479 9 8,962 12 109,628 136
06 2,020 190 464 8 9,382 11 119,181 3.6
07 2,201 184 453 8 9,606 10 119,365 3.4
08 2,430 181 446 7 9,087 8 119,784 3.2
09 2,635 175 445 7 9,585 8 138,768 3.5
10 2,922 172 430 6 9,881 7 149,200 3.6
11 2,950 163 404 6 8,171 6 149,511 3.4
12 3,059 147 420 6 9,916 6 146,836 3.1
13 2,918 124 424 6 9,912 6 151,337 3.1

14 2,759 104 431 6 10,090 5 156,410 3.0

* Hanwoo – Korean native cattle

The number of livestock animals has increased except for in the period of 2011~2012 when there
was an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease in Korea. The number of farms is continuously
decreasing.
2. Feed production in S. Korea
Korean Feed production is approx. 27 million ton per year. Korea is one of the largest feed
markets in Asia.

Table 2. Feed production by year by kind (1,000 ton)

Concentrated feed
Yr Total Formula feed production Farms self- Roughage
Total production (Local)
Total Local Import Self-
sufficiency
rate (%)
70 3,463 913 508 190 318 37 405 2,550
75 5,021 1,451 901 489 412 54 550 3,570
80 7,561 3,996 3,462 1,410 2,054 41 532 3,565
85 13,250 7,322 6,457 2,272 4,195 35 855 5,928
90 17,116 10,529 10,518 2,839 7,690 27 644 5,943
95 23,302 15,700 14,856 3,639 11,217 25 792 3,392
00 19,289 15,897 15,105 3,923 11,068 26 792 3,392
05 20,283 16,152 15,278 3,730 11,403 25 874 4,131
06 21,271 17,049 15,693 3,862 11,675 25 1,356 4,222
07 22,797 18,180 16,363 4,090 12,179 25 1,817 4,617
08 23,833 18,779 16,323 4,087 12,096 25 2,456 5,054
09 24,547 19,344 16,665 3,954 12,599 24 2,679 5,203
10 25,157 20,124 17,710 4,338 13,246 25 2,414 5,033
11 24,960 19,383 16,815 4,214 12,480 25 2,568 5,577
12 26,845 21,182 18,640 4,453 14,065 24 2,542 5,663
13 27,365 21,635 19,086 4,407 14,529 23 2,549 5,731
14 26,874 21,297 18,868 4,353 14,366 23 2,429 5,577

3. Formula feed

1) Production

Table 3. Formula feed production (Local+import) by animal in 2014

Animal Cattle Swine Chicken *Others Total

Beef Dairy
Volume 4,951 1,340 5,963 5,172 1,442 18,868
(1,000 ton)
Share (%) 26.2 7.1 31.6 27.4 7.6 100.0
* Others: fish, dog, cat, horse, sheep, duck, etc.
2) Producers

Table 4. Number and capacity of formula feed plants (as of January 2015)
KFA NACF Others Total
Number Day Number Day Number Day Number Day
of capacity of plants capacity of plants capacity of plants capacity
plants (ton) (ton) (ton) (ton)
65 20,865 28 9,080 10 431 103 20,376

There are two big producer’s organizations for formula feed: One is Korean Feed Association
(KFA), the other is the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF). Most of private feed
companies are the members of KFA. NACF is a giant agricultural cooperative working nationwide
to support Korean farmers for finance and distribution of agricultural products, and operates its
own formula feed plants.

Table 5. Market share of top 4 players of formula feed (as of May 2015)
Number
Name Share (%)
of plants
Harim group
17.1 11
(Jeil Feed, Farmsco, Sunjin and Harim)

NACF 16.5 12

Easybio group
8.5 10
(Seoul Feed, Farmstory/DodramB&F and Easy farms)

Cargill Agri Purina Korea 7.3 6

Others
(CJ Cheiljedang, Daehan Feed, TS Corporation, Woosung 50.6 64
Feed and so on)

Many feed companies have been merged into two big livestock companies in the course of
horizontal and vertical integration of the Korean livestock sector over the last 15 years: Harim
group and Easybio group.

Harim started a chicken farm in 1978 and has grown as the largest poultry meat maker. Since
2001, Harim has merged 3 feed companies (Jeil Feed, Farmsco and Sunjin) and has become the
largest feed maker in South Korea.

Easybio was established in 1988 as a venture company for feed additives and has expanded the
business to formula feed by merging Seoul Feed and Farmstory/DodramB&F. Easybio is now the
2nd largest feed company in South Korea (3rd largest including NACF).

Cargill Agri Purina from the US has been active in Korea for a long time and has played an
important role in the development of the Korean feed industry.

CJ Cheiljedang, Daehan Feed, TS Corporation, Woosung Feed and other small-medium companies
are sharing the rest market.
Table 6. Ranking of private formula feed companies (in KFA) by animal (in 2013)

a. Total
Ranking Company Production(1,000 Mt)
1 Cargill Agri Purina Korea 1,306
2 Jeil Feed (Harim group) 1,271
3 Farmsco (Harim group) 813
4 CJ Cheiljedang 742
5 Seoul Feed (Easybio group) 657
6 Daehan Feed 561
7 TS Corporation 550
8 Woosung Feed 538
9 Farmstory/DodramBnF (Easybio group) 500
10 Sunjin (Harim group) 413

b. Swine
Ranking Company Production(1,000 Mt)
1 Cargill Agri Purina Korea 656
2 Farmsco (Harim group) 431
3 Jeil Feed (Harim group) 363
4 Farmstory/DodramBnF (Easybio group) 347
5 CJ Cheiljedang 330
6 TS Corporation 271
7 Daehan Feed 260
8 Sunjin (Harim group) 254
9 Woosung Feed 252
10 Dongaone 158

c. Dairy cattle
Ranking Company Production(1,000 Mt)
1 Cargill Agri Purina Korea 160
2 Hanil Feed 113
3 Jeil Feed (Harim group) 106
4 CJ Cheiljedang 85
5 Sunjin (Harim group) 69
6 Woosung Feed 67
7 Daehan Feed 45
8 HS Feed 38
9 Dongwon Farms 33
10 TS Corporation 33

d. Beef (Hanwoo) cattle

Ranking Company Production(1,000 Mt)
1 Jeil Feed (Harim group) 217
2 Cargill Agri Purina Korea 212
 3 Easy Farms (Easybio group) 201
4 Woosung Feed 157
5 Farmsco (Harim group) 136
6 CJ Cheiljedang 134
7 TS Corporation 112
8 Sunjin (Harim group) 85
9 Daehan Feed 68
10 Doosan 59

e. Chicken
Ranking Company Production(1,000 Mt)
1 Seoul Feed (Easybio group) 549
2 Jeil Feed (Harim group) 487
3 Harim (Harim group) 382
4 Nanong 298
5 Cherrybro 250
6 HS Feed 186
7 SB Feed 185
8 CJ Cheiljedang 164
9 Farmstory/DodramBnF (Easybio group) 144
10 Cargill Agri Purina Korea 125

3) Prices

Figure 1. Formula feed price

16,000

14,000

12,000

10,000
KRW/25Kg

8,000

6,000

4,000

2,000
03 04 05 06 07 08 9 10 11 12 13 14
Chicken, Laying hen early stage 6,342 7,396 6,581 6,621 7,863 12,739 11,400 10,814 12,525 12,581 12,007 11,465
Chicken, Broiler former stage 7,633 8,633 7,814 7,968 9,284 14,416 13,941 13,939 15,215 13,389 14,500 13,793
pig, Upbrining pig first stage 7,268 8,475 7,808 7,835 9,037 14,397 12,561 12,407 14,874 14,486 13,904 13,318
pig, Pork 6,839 8,101 7,407 7,303 8,809 13,126 11,140 10,788 11,605 13,483 13,002 13,506
Dairy cow, Non-milking middle stage 6,156 6,926 6,002 6,998 8,137 10,792 10,690 10,217 11,888 12,345 11,773 11,613
Dairy cow, Non-milking late stage 5,243 5,985 6,273 6,619 7,411 9,548 9,780 8,884 9,971 9,687 9,198 10,796
Beef cow, Beef former stage 5,828 6,663 6,382 6,494 7,658 11,038 9,306 9,201 10,832 10,854 10,710 10,851
Beef cow, Beef latter stage 5,953 6,628 6,084 6,382 7,619 11,467 9,559 9,689 11,335 11,033 11,212 10,799
The world wide inflation of grain prices between 2006 and 2007 made Korea’s formula feed prices
soar.

4) Trade

Figure 2. Formula feed trade by year

500

450

400

350

300

250

200

150

100

50

0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Import (USD million) 83 85 102 119 126 128 155 181 180 195 227 259 306 322 357
Import (1,000 ton) 65 63 76 103 118 110 146 178 180 239 225 271 355 426 449
Export (USD million) 16 23 24 22 27 28 31 29 55 43 64 71 70 76 92
Export (1,000 ton) 11 19 23 21 26 24 31 27 52 34 63 79 68 94 85

* HS Code 2309: including pet food, supplementary feed, feed additive and milk replacer

Table 7. Main formula feed trading partner nations (in 2014)

Ranking Import from Export to

Nation Value (USD million) Nation Value (USD million)
1 China 99 Indonesia 24
2 US 80 Vietnam 18
3 France 34 Japan 15
4 Thailand 19 Thailand 7
5 Australia 18 Malaysia 6
6 Japan 17 China 4
7 The Netherlands 14 Philippines 3

Since 1990s, Korean Feed industry has faced the limits to growth due to limited size of the
domestic market and tough competition among feed companies. Therefore, Korean feed
companies have tried to advance abroad. Over the last 25 years, 8 companies have established
more than 50 feed plants in China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippine, Turkey and India.

4. Feed ingredients
Imported feed ingredients have played an important role in the Korean feed industry because 76%
of feed ingredients are from abroad. Feed ingredients are mainly imported from the US, China,
Ukraine and Vietnam. Due to the rising global grain prices, Korean feed industry has had difficulty
in making feed prices competitive. Korean Feed companies always look for cheaper feed
ingredients.

Table 8. Trade of Feed ingredients in 2014 (1,000ton)

Imports Exports Main trade countries
Grains Corn for feed 8,153 - Import: US (52%), Brazil (16%),
Ukraine (15%)
Wheat for feed 1,456 - Import: Ukraine (29%),
Canada (23%)
Forages Plants (such as Alfalfa) 988 - Import: US (79%)
Straw and husks 44 1 Import: Vietnam (46%)
Cakes Meat or fish materials 54 33 Import: Chile (44%)
Export: Vietnam (39%)
Indonesia (27%)
Cereal bran and sharps 215 0.2 Import: Indonesia (75%)
Starch residues 1,477 16 Import: US (48%)
China (41%)
Oil cake of soybean oil 1,780 177 Import: Brazil (56%)
Other oil cakes 2,149 0.1 Import: India (46%)
Indonesia (27%)
Vegetable materials 167 - Import: China (78%)

Table 9. Feed grains supply by year

Year Total Corn Other grains
Sub- Domestic Imports Sub- Domestic Imports Sub- Domestic Imports
total total total
80 2,077 69 2,008 2,028 49 1,979 49 20 29
85 4,095 346 3,749 2,421 56 2,365 1,674 190 1,384
90 5,634 154 5,480 4,777 67 4,710 857 87 770
95 8,510 140 8,370 7,007 13 6,994 1,503 127 1,376
00 8,425 259 8,166 6,517 2 6,515 1,908 257 1,651
05 8,368 185 8,183 6,629 13 6,616 1,739 172 1,567
06 8,443 202 8,241 6,617 20 6,597 1,826 182 1,644
07 8,556 227 8,329 7,017 10 7,007 1,539 217 1,322
08 8,188 284 7,904 6,892 - 6,892 1,296 284 1,012
09 8,749 186 8,563 6,239 - 6,239 2,510 186 2,324
10 9,355 223 9,132 6,549 - 6,549 2,806 223 2,583
11 8,622 252 8,370 5,721 1 5,720 2,901 251 2,650
12 9,890 285 9,605 5,853 - 5,853 4,037 285 3,752
13 10,063 267 9,796 6,776 - 6,776 3,287 267 3,020
14 10,050 269 9,781 7,895 - 7,895 2,155 269 1,896

Korea Feed Ingredients Association (KFIA) is an association comprised with importers of feed
ingredients and supplementary feed.

5. Feed additives

The largest local feed additive producers in South Korea are Easybio and CTCbio. They have
developed different kinds of functional additives for feed. But most of key materials for feed
additives such as antibiotics, vitamin and mineral are from abroad

Table 8. Trade of Feed additives in 2014 (ton)

Imports Exports Main trade countries
Antibiotics 798 60 Import: China (71%),
Export: Philippines (43%)
Vitamin 604 432 Import: UK 67%
Export: Pakistan 39%
Mineral 1,831 22 Import: UK (24%), US (23%)
Export: Singapore (32%), Taiwan (22%)
Others 1,705 2,647 Import: US (40%), China (15%)
Export: Japan (23%), China (14%)

The largest supplier of vitamin premix and mineral in Korea is DSM (the Netherlands) followed by
Basf (Germany) and Adisseo (China). Korean companies such as Daone Chemical and Cheilbio
produce premix products using imported vitamins and minerals.

6. Feed farming
1) Area of Feed crops and grassland in Korea by year
300,000

250,000

200,000
Area (ha)

150,000

100,000

50,000

0
90 95 00 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14
Feed crops 43,319 18,120 72,920 97,359 102,680 123,423 152,241 200,648 200,251 205,251 221,065 229,905 259,198
Grassland 616 66301 51870 43581 42114 41432 40790 40059 39371 38953 37675 37030 35764
7. Contacts

* Association and cooperative

1) Korea Feed Association
Website (Eng): http://www.kofeed.org/english/index.asp
E-mail: plan@kofeed.org, gener@kofeed.org
Tel: +82-2-581-5721

2) Korea Feed ingredients Association

Website: http://www.kfeedia.org
E-mail: kfeedia@hanmail.net, kfeedia@kfeedia.org
Tel: +82-2-585-2223

3) National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (also called “Nonghyup” in KR language)

Website: http://www.nonghyupsaryo.com/
Tel: +82-2-2224-8500

*Companies
- Formula Feed
1) Cargill Agri Purina Korea
Website: http://www.purinafeed.co.kr/
Tel: +82-31-710-6000
2) Jeil feed
Website: http://www.jeilfeed.co.kr/
Tel: +82-42-624-4101

3) Farmsco
Website: http://www.farmsco.com
E-mail: webmaster@farmsco.com
Tel: +82-31-720-7114

4) CJ Cheiljedang
Website (Eng): http://www.cj.co.kr/cj-en/index
E-mail: webmaster@CJ.net
Tel: +82-2-726-8114

5) Seoul Feed
Website (Eng): http://www.seoulfeed.com/ENG/
E-mail: seoul@seoulfeed.com
Tel: +82-2-588-1981

6) Daehan feed
Website (Eng): https://www.daehanfeed.co.kr/english/index.html
E-mail: ds0150@daehanfeed.co.kr, webmaster@daehanfeed.co.kr
Tel: +82-32-770-1142

7) TS Corporation
Website (Eng): http://www.ts.co.kr/newhomepage/eng/com/com01.asp
Tel: +82-2-410-6000
8) Woosung Feed
Website (Eng): http://www.woosungfeed.co.kr/eng/
E-mail: http://www.woosungfeed.co.kr/eng/board/qna.html
Tel: +82-42-670-1724

9) Farmstory/DodramBnF
Website: http://www.dodrambnf.co.kr/
Tel: +82-2-588-1989

10) Sunjin
Website (Eng): http://www.sj.co.kr/eng/sunjin_eng/index.asp
E-mail: swchoi@sj.co.kr
Tel: +82-2-2225-0777

- Feed ingredients

1) Easy Bio (Producer and importer)

Website (Eng): http://www.easybio.co.kr/Eng/
Ms. Sung-Hee Han, manager
Tel: +82-2-501-9988 (ext: 225)
E-mail: hsh@easybio.co.kr

2) CTC Bio (Producer and importer)

Webiste (Eng): http://www.ctcbio.com/eng/main/main.php
Mr. Seong-Woo Jeong, manager, can speak English
Tel: +82-2-3400-9842
E-mail: toddjung@ctcbio.com

3) DSM Nutrition Korea (vitamin premix producer)

Website: http://www.dsm-foodspecialties.com
Mr. Leo Park, general manager, can speak English
E-mail: leo.park@dsm.com
Tel: +82-2-6244-6007

4) AToGM co.(Importer)
Mr. Young-Mok Lee, president, can speak English
Tel: +82-2-445-8644
E-mail: ymlee1963@yahoo.co.kr

5) Vixxol (Importer)
Website: http://www.vixxol.com/
Mr. Peter Park, managing director, can speak English
Tel: +82-10-4213-7208
E-mail: peterpark@vixxol.com

6) Milae ML (Importer)
Mr. Angelo Kim, director
Tel: +82-10-7130-9819,
 E-mail: rabo@milaeml.com

7) Daone Chemical (Premix producer)

Website (Eng): http://www.daonechem.com/
Tel: +82-2-564-8451

8) Cheilbio
Website (Eng): http://www.cheilbio.com/?module=Default&action=DefaultE
Tel: +82-31-427-2861