"The demand for animal products will outstrip production if we do not take into account population and economic trends in our calculations.

"Demand for protein and energy sources for animal feed will dominate our industry," Gilbert told the International Grains Council annual conference.

"In the next 45 years, the world will need to produce three times more meat, milk and eggs than it does now," he said.

The world currently produces some 600 million tonnes of compound animal feed, with the United States at the top of the list with 145 million, the EU producing 140 million tonnes followed by China and Brazil, with 90 and 44 million tonnes respectively.

"In my view China will help Asia overtake North America within the next five to 10 years," he said.

Rising living standards also meant more demand for meat. He said academic studies had shown that for every one percent rise in a family's annual income, there was a corresponding two percent rise in expenditure on animal protein.

Australia, one of the world's biggest livestock producers, is also expecting to see a sharp rise in demand for feed grains over the next few years.

Michael Iwaniw, managing director of barley trading giant ABB Grain, told the conference that domestic feed grain demand could rise by up to 50 percent or five million tonnes by 2020.