July 24, 2014

24/07/2014: COCERAL, FEDIOL and FEFAC highly critical of the EU Commission’s lack of decision concerning vital food and feed import

COCERAL, FEDIOL and FEFAC express serious disappointment about the European Commission’s lack of consideration for the consequences for the EU food and feed business operators of having further delayed the EU authorization of 8 GM products (1) for import, food and feed processing. 


This postponement by the college of EU Commissioners leaves the EU food and feed business operators exposed to possible risk of disruptions of the vital imports of soybeans, maize and various protein-rich products derived thereof from the key exporting regions to the EU as well as serious legal uncertainty. 

In order to not further threaten the much needed supply to the EU, a decision needs to be taken by beginning of September 2014, before the 2014 autumn harvest will be made available in the key exporting regions to the EU and before risk of non-compliance will increase even further. 


The EU depends for 75% of its needs for protein-rich ingredients for feeding purpose on the global world markets. Some of these GM products, maize, soy and rapeseed are already commercialized abroad, others will be harvested and made available in the key exporting regions to the EU as from autumn 2014. Additional delays in the EU authorization process may, therefore, lead to significant shortage and trade disruptions due to unavoidable presence of these GM events in our supplies of both GM and non-GM material. This would trigger further uncertainty on import flows, supply chain disruptions and price hikes for basic food products and major feed ingredients as well as undermine the competitiveness of the EU food, feed and livestock sectors. 


The 8 GM products have been deemed safe by the European Food Safety Authority (ESFA) and have reached the final stage of the risk management process. The decisions for the related EU import authorizations lay in the hands of the EU Commission: some of them are awaited since the end of 2013.
 

Footnote:
(1) Maize MON 87460, Rapeseed GT 73, Soybean 305423, Soybean MON87708, Soybean MON87705, Soybean BPS-CV127-9, Maize T25 and Cotton T304-40

COCERAL is the European association of cereals, rice, feedstuffs oilseeds, olive oil, oils and fats and agrosupply trade. It represents the interest of the European collectors, traders, importers, exporters and port silo storekeepers of the above mentioned agricultural products. COCERAL’s full members are 30 national associations in 19 countries [Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxemburg, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK] and 1 European association [Unistock] With about 2700 companies as part of COCERAL national members, the sector trades agricultural raw materials destined to the supply of the food and feed chains, as well as for technical and energy uses. COCERAL has two associated members in Switzerland and Serbia. 


FEDIOL, the EU vegetable oil and proteinmeal industry association, represents the interests of the European seed and bean crushers, meal producers, vegetable oils producers, refiners and bottlers. FEDIOL’s members are 12 national associations and associated company members in 5 other EU countries. With about 150 facilities in Europe the sector provides 20.000 direct employments. Its members process approximately 36 million tonnes of basic products a year, both of EU origin and imported from third country markets. The sector processes notably rapeseed, sunflower seed, soybeans and linseed into oils and meals for food, feed, technical and energy uses essentially on the European market.
 

FEFAC is the European Compound Feed Manufacturers’ Federation. FEFAC represents 24 national Associations in 23 EU Member States as well as Associations in Switzerland, Turkey, Croatia, Serbia, Russia and Norway with observer/associate member status, and is the only independent spokesman of the European Compound Feed Industry at the level of the European Institutions. The European compound feed industry employs over 110,000 persons on app. 4,000 production sites often in rural areas, which offer few employment opportunities.
 

The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine GFMT
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.


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