Animal production is one of the pillars of human welfare through the production of food, animal by-products, employment generation, and economic growth.

Currently, the human population has just surpassed 8 billion individuals, according to international organizations. This population group generates a high demand for high-quality food, including animal protein. These animal-derived products include chicken and turkey meat, and chicken and duck eggs, among others.

In recent decades, animal production systems in each country have improved their technologies, techniques, and equipment to optimize labor times and costs. These improvements have allowed the systems to be efficient, economic and to supply food to mankind. For this reason, food security is currently one of the major international development objectives.

On the other hand, the energy demand of these production systems is high, and the waste generated is a challenge for livestock industries. Animal food production has grown exponentially, therefore the necessary resources and waste have also multiplied. For this reason, sustainability has been consolidated as one of the fundamental axes in contemporary animal production.

Sustainability in animal production

Global markets have strengthened in recent decades and have multiplied the work rhythm in pace with world growth. Among these markets, the market for animal products and livestock systems often stands out.

Animal production is one of the links in the chain that sustains and enables humankind to continue to grow economically, improve its welfare and enhance countries’ food security. These systems play fundamental roles in developed countries because they are the engines of their exporting and importing economies, as well as part of their culture.

On the other hand, in developing countries, these systems constitute an opportunity for growth, increased wealth, employment generation, and improved living conditions for their populations.

Poultry production: an efficient and growing system

In 2021, poultry meat production figures recovered markedly after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The United States produced 20,391 metric tons during that year, while Brazil reached 14,500 MT and China 14,700, followed by the European Union with 10,830 metric tons generated during 2021.

The second best Latin American producer was Mexico, ranked 6th in the world with 3,815 metric tons of chicken meat, followed by Argentina and Colombia, ranked 9th and 11th respectively.

In addition, so far in 2022, these producing countries have managed to increase their efficiency compared to the previous year. Thus, the United States produced 20,525 metric tons of poultry meat in 2022. Brazil has also seen an increase in its poultry production, reaching 14,850 MT of meat, and the European Union with 10,850 MT.

The other Latin American countries have also improved their production rates, with Mexico producing 3900 MT, Argentina 2320 MT, and Colombia 1805 MT in the current year.

Egg production is another important component of the world’s livestock industry. This poultry sector has shown remarkable improvements in its production systems and has grown significantly in the last decade. Egg production in 2008 worldwide was 61.7 million tons, while in 2018 it registered 76.7 million tons. This improvement represented a 24% increase in global egg production.

Among egg-producing countries, China continues to occupy a significant margin as it contributes 34% of the world total, followed by the European Union with 9%, the United States with 8%, India with 7%, and closing the TOP 5 is Mexico with 4%.

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Sustainability: one of Giordano Poultry Plast’s pillars

Giordano Poultry Plast (GPP) is an Italian company founded in 1962 in Caraglio, Italy. The company was founded to create specialized plastic products for the poultry industry. Since then, GPP has designed and marketed a line of products and equipment that improve poultry house facilities, efficiency, and production.

Some of the products that Giordano Poultry Plast manufactures for the poultry sector include:

• Plastic cages for live animal transport that provide comfort and fulfill international animal welfare standards.
• Feeders, drinkers, and perches that enrich the poultry house environment and supply birds with feed.
• Systems for transporting and storing chicken meat.
• Specialized and modern systems for egg transport.
• Design of equipment for storage and mobilization of products such as carts and baskets.
• Environmentally sustainable power generation using the following for their production

From its creation to date, Giordano Poultry Plast has established itself as one of the leading companies in the European and global poultry industry. The high quality of its products and innovative designs have allowed productive, economic, and environmental improvements in the poultry industry.

Thus, to continue growing and contributing to the development of poultry farming worldwide, Giordano Poultry Plast has increased its efforts and implemented improvements for the company’s sustainability.

The socio-political, environmental, and economic factors have led companies to bet on sustainability in their processes of development, production, and commercialization of products and services. Sustainability is currently one of the pillars in the growth of companies, which is why Giordano Poultry Plast has implemented several strategies to achieve this objective.

Giordano Poultry Plast’s Sustainability Strategies

Climate change is one of the topics of greatest interest worldwide and a relevant component in companies. To mitigate this global problem, companies have decided to achieve carbon neutrality. This concept refers to reducing carbon dioxide emissions to zero or balancing the emission of carbon dioxide and its recapture. Thus, Giordano Poultry Plast has set among its sustainability strategies to achieve this goal.

Contemporary companies recognize that sustainability in their industry improves their future economic performance and contributes to the company’s survival in the global marketplace. For this reason, Giordano Poultry Plast is currently developing the following sustainability strategies:

• Risk analysis: GPP focuses on attention, awareness, targets, and analysis of risks through observation, analysis, evaluation, and mitigation. These measures are done under a holistic approach that allows for addressing problems and solutions from different areas.
• Health and safety: the health of its personnel and process safety is fundamental to the sustainability of the company.
• Digitalization: Giordano Poultry Plast is committed to the implementation of cutting-edge technologies that facilitate and economize processes.
• Circular economy: GPP’s goals include recycling production waste and seeking to reuse it in the manufacture of its products.
• Efficient product design: the efficiency of Giordano Poultry Plast products is linked to a high-quality and sustainable design that allows maximum performance and durability.
• Efficient use of water resources: the care and efficient management of water resources is a key point in the Italian company’s environmental sustainability.
• Emissions reduction: the Italian company’s objectives include reducing Nox, HFC, and N2O emissions.
• Waste management: Giordano Poultry Plast complies with national and international regulations on waste management and chemical product management.
• Product quality: The high-quality products developed by GPP meet international standards and have quality certificates, thus ensuring sustainability because the products are durable, resistant, and of high quality.
• Governance and organization: Giordano Poultry Plast’s guidelines are developed by a team of experts and follow global parameters for sustainability.
• Energy self-generation: GPP’s subsidiary, Giordano Energy, is the section in charge of energy generation for the company and other industries. Animal fat is used as biomass for the generation of clean and autonomous energy.

CONCLUSIONS

The livestock industry is one of the fastest-growing economic sectors in recent decades and continues to develop steadily. Animal production has significantly improved its processes to supply the world’s food demand, which has increased the demand for energy and waste generated.

Therefore, sustainability has become a key concept within the companies involved in animal production. Giordano Poultry Plast is a global example of an environmentally sustainable company that continues to work to improve its processes for the benefit of the environment.

The Italian company has a range of sustainability strategies for the future, ensuring its environmentally friendly growth, economic strength, and international reputation.

Finally, Giordano Poultry Plast seeks carbon neutrality and expects to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to zero by 2050. Likewise, it has set itself the goal of reducing these GHG emissions by 50% in the period 2022 to 2035 through these important sustainability strategies.