Interview

What is the concentration risk in the vitamin supply chain, and how can industry and policymakers work together to reduce this dependency?

There is a high degree of supply concentration in the vitamin supply chain already: it is not a risk, but a fact. All countries in the world except for China depend on imports for their vitamin supply, with some countries in Latin America and Europe are fully 100% dependent on imported vitamins. The USA is close to 100% import dependent for vitamins, though dsm-firmenich does produce Hy-D®, a pure form of 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (25-OH-D₃) in the United States.

The intense day-to-day price competition on vitamins makes it easy to overlook the fact that a supply chain disruption would massively interrupt feed and animal protein value chains quite quickly. It would mean a drastic shift from an apparent oversupply of vitamins to a significant shortage. Businesses that were unable to secure sufficient supply would struggle to remain in operation. 

An important step to reduce supply chain risk is to acknowledge the critical role of vitamins in assuring our food and health security, both as direct ingredient in infant nutrition and dietary supplements, and as indirect ingredient to safely raise animals to secure sufficient protein for a balanced diet.

From a high-level perspective, vitamins are often overlooked because they are a fractional portion of nutritional input, yet they have an oversized, positive impact in terms of animal growth, performance and well-being.

A world without vitamins is hard to imagine. Within 6 months a world without enough vitamin production would lead to a significant reduction in availability of meat, eggs, farmed seafood and dairy products, combined with severe food cost inflation. It would have serious implications for the animals on our farms, the pets in our homes and our young babies who rely at least in part on infant formulas for daily nutrition.

Acknowledging the critical role of vitamins opens the door for defining strategic interventions to secure sufficient supply. This could entail countries establishing strategic inventories or resilient supply partnerships that ensure stability of supply. Given that vitamin production is capital intensive, these options are more readily implemented than building new production facilities. Efforts to change are needed sooner rather than later, if we want to keep supply resiliency and maintain food security.

How can we balance the push for greener production with the need to keep vitamins affordable and widely available to farmers?

Thanks to years of investment, vitamins produced in Europe already have a much lower carbon footprint compared to those produced elsewhere. For example, Vitamin A made in Europe has a 68% lower CO₂_eq footprint. Translated into economic value, that’s around 2.4 € per kg of vitamin produced, based on current pricing of carbon credits.

“dsm-firmenich Animal Nutrition & Health is committed to making vitamins more resilient, sustainable, and affordable for farmers worldwide.”

There is a need to reduce the environmental footprint of agriculture value chains, including important upstream inputs such as vitamins, while simultaneously ramping up output to feed a growing population.

Farmers depend on affordable, reliable vitamins every day. But it is excessive concentration risk in the supply chain that is the biggest threat to farming operations. In the case of vitamins, choosing the most sustainable option also best protects farmers and premixers against supply chain disruptions.

What role can policymakers and industry play in securing a resilient vitamin supply?

Policymakers and industry need to work hand in hand to secure a resilient and sustainable vitamin supply chain. This means ensuring existing European production sites are kept operational and in safe hands, maintaining strategic stocks, and preparing contingency capacity in case of disruptions. A coordinated approach is essential: governments can provide the framework and support, while industry brings the innovation and operational know-how. Only together can we reduce supply risks, strengthen food security, and ensure that we’re positioned to feed this generation and the next.