Europe’s food security rests on a supply chain few people ever see

Europe’s food security does not begin at the farm gate. It starts much earlier, in supply chains that rarely feature in public debates, and remain largely invisible to consumers.

Vitamins are a case in point. Used in minute quantities, they attract little attention—until they are no longer available. When supply is disrupted, animal health deteriorates quickly, food quality suffers and production costs rise sharply.

Today, the vast majority of the world’s key vitamins are produced in China. Such a high level of dependency on one country would be a concern in any sector. In agriculture, it carries direct consequences for how reliably nutritious food can be produced, priced and supplied.

This article explores these dynamics and shows why, for critical and essential inputs like vitamins, sourcing raw materials closer to home is key to differentiating and reducing supply risk.

Why Vitamins are non-substitutable inputs

Vitamins are part of Europe’s critical health, food and feed infrastructure. They play an irreplaceable and foundational role in animal health and food production. Modern livestock systems depend on them to meet precise nutritional requirements essential for growth, immune function, reproduction and feed efficiency.

Research by the Institute for Feed Education and Research (IFEEDER) shows that when access is disrupted, the impact is rapid and severe. Deficiencies in vitamin A can increase broiler mortality by up to 80% and quadruple the incidence of footpad lesions. In sows, insufficient vitamin E has been shown to triple mortality, while shortages of B vitamins more than double mortality rates in market hogs. Vitamin D deficiency can reduce egg production by more than one third, with knock‑on effects not only for egg supply, but also for downstream food products. These effects illustrate why unreliable vitamin supply does not affect individual farms alone but undermines the stability and availability of food across the entire system.

For food processors and millers, the implication is systemic risk: a supply chain that appears abundant in the short term but becomes increasingly fragile over time as alternative production disappears. What looks like surplus today ultimately undermines resilience, security of supply and long‑term food production.

A supply chain built on concentration

The economics behind vitamin production have favored scale and cost efficiency for decades, driving increasing concentration in production.

Consequently, the global vitamin market has become a fragile, high‑risk system. China is currently the only country that manufactures all vitamins. For vitamins such as B1, B4, B5, B6, B9, B12, C, D3, and H, China accounts for over 80% of global production, and holds more than 60% share for vitamin E and K3. Approximately 70% of the vitamins used in animal nutrition within the EU are imported from China. This has led to declining capacity utilization at European sites, despite stable underlying demand. 

Figure 1. Global vitamin production relies heavily on China | Source: FEFAC

Yet Europe still holds the foundations for supply resilience. It still retains several, highly specialized vitamin production sites, built on decades of scientific know‑how, industrial investment and regulatory oversight. If properly utilized, this remaining capacity can secure a meaningful degree of regional independence and significantly reduce Europe’s exposure to external supply shocks. Doing so requires that these assets are actively relied upon in sourcing decisions—ensuring that critical and essential vitamins continue to be produced close to Europe’s food system.

When “cheapest” becomes expensive

Food and feed systems operate on the assumption that vitamins will always be available. History shows this assumption is fragile. Disruptions can arise suddenly from export restrictions, contamination events or regulatory changes. When supply is disrupted, there are no immediate substitutes and no quick fixes. Feed formulations cannot be adjusted overnight, and animal health deteriorates rapidly. Within weeks, farmers face poorer animal performance, compromised animal welfare, higher mortality, and reduced output.

For bakers and food manufacturers, the same disruptions translate into inconsistent fortification, reformulation challenges, and risks to product quality and nutritional compliance, while feed producers are exposed to shortages and operational disruption. 

Recent examples show how quickly shocks can propagate through highly concentrated supply chains.

China’s export controls on rare earths demonstrated how a strong concentration of production in a single country can be used as strategic leverage with global effects.

A separate single‑source contamination incident with cereulide, led to the global recall of infant formula in more than 60 countries, highlighting the fragility of tightly interconnected systems. The same vulnerability was evident in 2024, when a fire at BASF’s Ludwigshafen site disrupted global supplies of vitamins A and E almost overnight.

Together, these cases show that even isolated industrial or geopolitical events can escalate rapidly into system‑wide risks. The result is cumulative pressure across the supply chain and reduced access to essential inputs at stable and predictable prices.

The sustainability pressure behind the system

In parallel to supply security concerns, sustainability expectations across food and feed systems continue to rise. With global consumption of animal protein projected to increase by 60–70% by 2050, systems must deliver both higher output and lower environmental impact.

This places growing importance on how feed inputs are produced and sourced. Feed plays a central role in determining emissions, land use and resource efficiency and relatively small changes in formulation or sourcing can have measurable effects at scale.

European vitamin production demonstrates the potential impact of low‑carbon design choices. For example, dsm‑firmenich’s vitamin A produced in Europe has a carbon footprint around 70% lower than comparable alternatives, corresponding to savings of roughly 48 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne produced (equivalent to planting around 800 trees).

This illustrates how advanced technology, energy choices and high production standards can materially reduce environmental impact while supporting the performance and resilience of food and feed systems.

Europe’s position and the need for resilience

Europe’s vitamin supply remains highly exposed to global trade flows. When external conditions change, availability and prices can shift rapidly, with immediate consequences for the resilience of European food and feed systems.

Maintaining regional vitamin production in Europe helps address these risks. Shorter supply chains reduce reliance on vulnerable long-distance logistics and provide greater control over quality, safety and traceability—factors that become increasingly important as standards diverge across markets.

Regional capability does not replace global trade but rather creates balance. The current model has delivered efficiency and scale, while also concentrating risk far from the point of use. Strengthening European production redistributes that risk and increases control over supply, performance and environmental impact.

The strategic question is therefore not whether Europe should participate in global markets, but how much of its food system should depend on essential inputs produced far from where they are used and under conditions that are not always visible or consistent.

Why securing the fundamentals matters

Resilience does not come from having capacity on paper alone. It depends on keeping that capacity economically alive. If we want to secure European supply, we must not only maintain a European production footprint but also use it. That means valuing reliability, transparency and proximity in sourcing decisions, rather than defaulting to large import volumes simply because they are cheaper in the short term. Prioritizing European suppliers helps to ensure that essential production remains viable where it is ultimately needed.

For dsm-firmenich, with more than a century of work in vitamin science, that means continuing to invest in production that supports long-term supply, consistent quality and lower environmental impact. When small inputs have large consequences, resilience starts with securing the fundamentals.

This article was featured in Milling & Grain magazine.