Annual Report 2011 (5.07 MB, PDF-File) - Oerlikon

Remuneration Report Risk Management Financial Report Global Markets R & D Global Presence
Food
Agriculture needs more efficient means
of production
According to projections, by 2050, around 9 billion people will
inhabit the Earth – over 30 % more than today. But according
to the United Nations Food and Agri culture Organization (FAO)
study “How to Feed the World in 2050”, the global demand for
food will rise at a faster rate than population growth. By 2050,
demand for food will have increased by 70 %.
A key driver of this is the emergence of a rapidly expanding
middle class in the world’s cities, particularly in Asia. Whereas
just 40 % of the Asian population lived in urban areas a decade
ago, this figure is forecast to reach 55 % by 2030. City residents
tend to have greater purchasing power and consume
significantly more processed food than those who live in rural
areas. As urbanization increases, so, too, does the demand for
relatively expensive foods such as meat and dairy products.
In China, for instance, meat consumption has been growing at
roughly the same pace as the economy, doubling from 25 kilograms
per person in 1980 to 50 kilograms in 2005. Global demand
for meat is likely to continue rising: in 2000, 20 % of the
calories consumed in developing countries were from meat,
dairy products and plant oils. According to the FAO, this figure
is expected to increase to 29 % by 2050. 470 million tons of
meat – twice as much as today – will be required to meet this
demand, and production of plant-based animal feed will have
to increase proportionally. For example, the amount of soy-
Food
Segment split
Textile Drive Systems Vacuum Solar Coating Advanced
Technologies
End usage of Oerlikon innovations
Tractors Trucks Equipment PET Packaging Freezing
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beans grown would have to double in comparison with today’s
figures to reach 515 million tons by 2050.
To grow, harvest and process such large quantities of food,
agricultural and food industry productivity must significantly improve.
The productivity gap between developed and emerging
countries is still very large: average crop yields in the world’s
richest nations are about 300 % higher than in poorer
countries.
How Oerlikon participates
Efficient farming – by, for instance, sowing high-yield varieties
of plants or applying effective fertilizing agents – can only be
achieved with high-performance agricultural machinery. This
trend is energizing business at Oerlikon Drive Systems, a leading
supplier of high-performance power-train solutions for tractors,
combines and other agricultural machinery.
The increased consumption of processed foods is benefiting
Oerlikon Vacuum, too. The segment produces robust, highperformance
vacuum systems used in the food industry packaging
process; removal of ambient air from around food products
maintains quality and lengthens shelf life.
The packaging industry also employs coated molds for such
applications as PET bottle manufacturing. These and other
press molds are coated using Oerlikon Coating facilities and
processes.