Livestock feed makers see rising competition for maize from ethanol producers

“The government has to stability and first take care of this sector, because we have no substitutes to maize. However, to ethanol, there are other grains available,” Gulati said.

“We have been making continuous representation to the government to secure supplies. We will continue to make representation that first you need to protect our sector and whatever stability you give to ethanol, we have no issue.” he said.

Further, Gulati said, prospects to maize crop this year have been impacted by a drop in acreage and also weak and delayed rains on account of El Nino. “The acreage has gone down, the plantation is down and now we are expecting the El Nino effect, also due to which the yields will also get impacted,” he added.

As per the Agriculture Ministry’s latest sowing data as of September 11, maize acreage stood at 91.59 lakh hectares, down 2.64 per cent over c 94.08 lakh hectare a year ago. In drought-hit Karnataka, the area is down 21 per cent at 13.38 lh (17 lh a year ago), while in Maharasthra the decline in area is 11 per cent at 12.98 lh (14.52 lh) and in Madhya Pradesh 2 per cent at 26.4 lh (27 lh).

The feed sector has come together and commissioned a satellite imagery based crop survey to maize. The survey is still going on. “On the first run of satellite imagery, we have seen a 14 per cent shortage. In the second run, as the vegetation are not grown to that level in some areas, the drop could be 8-9 per cent. Plus, if the yield goes down, which means we are looking at a deficit of 11-12 per cent in total,” he said.

From a production of around 45 million tonnes during kharif and rabi seasons last year, we might go back to our earlier figures of 38-39 million tonnes, which means again issue to the sector, Gulati said. “Out of this, if you give away 9-10 million tonnes, we had it. Prices of maize are ruling high around Rs 2,700-2,800 levels per quintal, ahead of the new crop arrivals, and will be higher. So we are heading towards disaster to sure”, he said.

The USDA regional office in New Delhi has cut the India’s corn output estimates by 10 per cent to 50 million tonnes from last year’s 55 million tonnes with weak rains impacting kharif acreages while clouding prospects to rabi and summer crops.

Maize is one of the critical raw material to the Indian feed manufacturers, especially poultry feed, where it accounts to 50-60 per cent of the feed formulations. As demand to maize rises from ethanol makers, feed mills are facing tighter supply and stronger price competition. The poultry sector is the most affected by the rise in maize prices because the broiler and layer feed are heavily-maize based. Feed typically accounts fro 60-70 per cent of the poultry production cost and inflation in maize prices has a direct impact on the prices of eggs and chicken meat.

India’s animal life feed market, which touched a volume of 57.73 million tonnes in 2025, representing a CAGR of 8 per cent during 2020-2025, is expected to reach 88.96 million tonnes, riding on the development of the livestock sector. The animal life feed marketing is expected to grow by CAGR of 9.7 per cent during 2026-2030, as per CLFMA estimates.

Published on September 15, 2026