Brussels, Belgium
February 14, 2008
Sources:
COCERAL, FEFAC, FEDIOL
The latest
ISAAA report on the GM production area shows the increasing
popularity of the cultivation of biotech crops for farmers
around the world. As compared to last year, GM plantings
increased by 12 % in 2007 and, in some cases, represent up to
90% of total crops. This upward trend has been recorded for more
than 10 years now and shows no sign of stopping. This leads the
seed breeding companies to develop ever more new GM events, for
cultivation, processing, food and feed uses in the EU’s main
supplying countries. The EU is a major importer of raw materials
from these countries, particularly of soybeans and soybean
products, and feed ingredients from the maize processing
industry.
According to DG AGRI, while the GM approval process takes on
average 15 months in the US, the European authorization process
takes over 30 months. These asynchronous approval processes
represent a serious threat to the supply of vital sectors of the
European food and feed industry, which cannot secure the
necessary raw materials for the crushing plants and/or the
compound feed units.
The current zero tolerance policy in the EU puts in jeopardy
soybean crushing in Europe. Already in autumn 2008, possible
trace level presence of new GM varieties in US soybeans (not yet
authorized for import and processing in the EU) will bring the
traditional crushing of US soybeans in the EU to a standstill.
Soon thereafter, upon cultivation of the new GMO varieties in
South America, if the zero tolerance still applies and the new
varieties are not yet authorized in the EU, all soybean meal
imports and the crushing of soybeans in the EU will stop with a
dramatic impact on all of the EU animal feeding industries.
The EU livestock sector will indeed suffer irreversible damage,
with the loss of up to 44% of its poultry and 35% of its pig
production according to DG AGRI estimates1. There are no viable
alternatives to the import of approximately 35 million tonnes of
soybean products as the key vegetable protein component for
animal feed.
This is the reason why the European Grain Traders Association (COCERAL),
the EU Oil and Proteinmeal Industry (FEDIOL)
and the European Feed Manufacturers Federation (FEFAC)
urgently call upon the EU and Member States for the
establishment of a threshold for the presence of GMOs, which
have undergone a feed and food safety risk assessment in and
outside the EU according to the CODEX GM plant guideline. The
above-mentioned industries call upon the EU and Member State
authorities to safeguard the EU’s crushing and livestock sector
by tackling this issue of zero tolerance before it is too late.
1
http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/envir/gmo/economic_impactGMOs_en.pdf
COCERAL is the acronym
for “Comité du commerce des céréales, aliments du bétail,
oléagineux, huile d’olive, huiles et graisses et
agrofournitures” and is considered as the voice representing the
European cereals, feedstuffs, oilseeds, olive oil, oils and fats
and agrosupply trade”. The Members of COCERAL are the national
trade organisations of most of the EU-27 Member States, who for
their part represent collectors, distributors, exporters,
importers and agribulk storers of the above-mentioned
commodities. The members are composed of essentially private
traders and in some countries also farmers’ cooperatives.
FEFAC (Fédération Européenne
des Fabricants d’Aliments Composés), the European Feed
Manufacturers’ Federation, represents 21 national Associations
in 20 EU Member States as well as Associations in Switzerland,
Turkey and Norway with observer/associate member status. The
European compound feed industry employs over 100,000 persons on
app. 4,000 production sites often in rural areas, which offer
few employment opportunities.
FEDIOL (the EU Oil and
Proteinmeal Industry) represents the interests of the European
seed and bean crushers, meals producers and vegetable oils
producers/processors. FEDIOL members crush 30 million tonnes of
oilseeds a year, produce 20 million tonnes of meals and 9
million tonnes of vegetable oils and further process 7 million
tonnes of imported oils. There are some 150 oilseeds processing
and vegetable oils and fats production facilities across Europe,
employing approximately 20 000 people. |
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