On 15 August 2026, the Ecological Environment Code of the People’s Republic of China officially came into force — the second law in the country to be named a “code”,after the Civil Code. Few people noticed that Article 171 of the Code writes a hard obligation into slaughtering operations:units and individuals engaged in livestock and poultry farming and slaughtering must, in a timely manner, “collect, store, transport,render and resource-utilise” waste such as manure and carcasses; violators face fines of up to 100,000 yuan, and in serious cases suspension of business or closure.
At almost the same moment, another development has been shaking the feed industry: Peru, the world’s largest fishmeal-producing region,cut its first-season 2026 anchovy quota for the north-central zone to 1.914 million tonnes — 36% below the 3 million tonnes of the previous year — after El Nino hit anchovy stocks,and the fishing season was declared closed early on 21 August. According to IFFO (the Marine Ingredients Organisation),global fishmeal output in the first quarter of 2026 fell 28% year on year; at Chinese ports, spot quotes for Peruvian super prime steam fishmeal once spiked to 23,000-24,000 yuan per tonne, more than 80% higher than a year earlier.
On one side, the new Code requires that slaughterhouse waste be “treated and utilised as fully as possible”;on the other, premium protein raw material has become so expensive that supply is breaking down. Both forces point, at the same moment, to the same answer: feather meal.
More than 85% of a poultry feather is keratin — a tough protein “locked up” tightly by disulphide bonds, which is why feathers repel water,resist tearing and are almost indigestible. That also means feathers contain far more protein than soybean meal (about 46%) and lose nothing against fishmeal (65%-72%);yet fed directly without processing, they are almost unusable to animals — the reason behind the saying: “protein to the eye, waste to the gut.”
The key to breaking the deadlock is hydrolysis: high-temperature, high-pressure steam breaks the disulphide bonds and cuts the long keratin chains into digestible peptides and amino acids,which are then dried and ground into hydrolysed feather meal with a crude protein content above 80% (industry standard NY/T 915-2017).The real technical highlight of the past two years, however, is the arrival of enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation:keratinase or micro-organisms “fine-cut” the protein at lower temperatures, avoiding heat damage to essential amino acids such as lysine.In March 2026, commercial evaluation data released by market research firm Maximize Market Research showed that enzyme-and bacteria-treated hydrolysed feather meal can already replace up to 33% of soybean meal in broiler diets without compromising performance;in aquafeed for rainbow trout, seabream and whiteleg shrimp, inclusion rates of 15%-17% are moving into commercial use.
The Action Plan for Grain Saving in the Livestock Industry, issued by China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in 2025,has already set a clear direction: by 2030, the development and utilisation capacity of non-grain feed resources — microbial protein,insect protein and animal-derived protein feed — should exceed 10 million tonnes,and the share of soybean meal in the feed consumed by the livestock sector should fall to around 10%.Feather meal is the most reliably supplied strand of “animal-derived protein feed”:it does not depend on imports, does not compete for farmland with food crops, and its raw material grows on every broiler that leaves the farm.
The numbers confirm the heat on this track: the global feather meal market was worth about USD 7.5 billion in 2025 and is expected to reach USD 15.26 billion by 2034,a compound annual growth rate of 8.2%, with Asia-Pacific the fastest-growing region;global sales in 2025 were about 1.45 million tonnes at an average price of USD 330-430 per tonne.International majors are scaling up too: in March 2025, Animex, part of Darling Ingredients, commissioned a rendering plant in Poland dedicated to poultry by-products,with hydrolysed feather meal among its core products. In China, industry reports put the collection price of slaughterhouse waste feathers at 600-700 yuan per tonne, while finished,qualified feather meal sells for 4,000-5,000 yuan per tonne — against imported fishmeal at more than 20,000 yuan per tonne, the value for money is plain to see.
Of course, feather meal is no universal substitute. Its amino acid profile is seriously lopsided: rich in cystine and arginine, yet clearly short of lysine and methionine,so it must be combined with soybean meal or synthetic amino acids in any formulation. Under-hydrolysed, animals cannot digest it;over-hydrolysed, the amino acids are “scorched” by heat. A more down-to-earth problem: routine feed testing mainly covers mandatory indicators such as crude protein and moisture,and a test report cannot show whether the protein comes from a highly digestible raw material or an inefficient one. Hence the industry saying:”crude protein on spec” is only the pass mark — “digestibility on spec” is the real capability. When buying,choose products that comply with NY/T 915-2017 or the newer enzymatic-hydrolysis group standard (T/SDAA 0053-2021), and ask for amino acid and digestibility test reports — that is the prudent approach.
From the treatment obligation set by the Code, to the formulation reform forced by the fishmeal crisis,to enzymatic hydrolysis inching digestibility upward, the story of feather meal is essentially a microcosm of the entire livestock industry turning towards a circular economy.And turning tonnes of waste feathers reliably into qualified protein raw material depends not on slogans but on a complete process chain covering collection,hydrolysis, drying, deodorisation and waste gas treatment. In this field, companies such as Hebei Chengzhu Machinery Group,which has spent more than a decade deep in slaughterhouse waste treatment equipment,are making “turning feathers into gold” an everyday affair in more and more slaughterhouses and feed mills.Next time you see chicken or duck feathers, spare a thought: they may already be swimming in the feed of the next batch of shrimp fry.
Blog · 9 月 16, 2026 In the Year Fishmeal Supply Breaks Down: Rethinking Feather Meal — from Slaughterhouse Waste to a Protein Bench Player Read More
