February 14, 2011

 

EU warns on Argentina's sorghum feed

 

 

Dutch authorities have confirmed that an Argentinean sorghum consignment meant for animal feed use was contaminated with the pesticide dichlorvos, according to an EU-wide alert.

 

It is possible the tainted animal feed has already been distributed to the market in both the Netherlands and Germany, the EU's Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) showed.

 

EU farmers last month were warned by German officials that feed had been tainted with the toxic chemical dioxin and fed to hens and pigs, contaminating eggs, poultry meat and pork at affected farms.

 

Animal feed makers in Spain, home to Europe's biggest feed industry, said they were concerned the alert could thwart imports to Europe of raw materials at a time when their prices were already at 2-1/2-year highs.

 

"The consequences for food security would have to be evaluated, as we are not today aware any batch has entered the food chain or more than one batch is affected," Spanish feed compounders' association Cesfac said in an internal report.

 

Cesfac said the tainted sorghum had been delivered to a feed factory in Germany, where the insecticide had been detected in an in-house check.

 

"The said manufacturer has made a formal complaint to the provider for not complying with product quality. The merchant has traced this batch to a sorghum ship, which contained 30,000 tonnes, or Argentine origin," it said, adding the sorghum had been unloaded in Rotterdam.

 

The RASFF alert said 0.623 parts per million of dichlorvos had been found in the sorghum. Cesfac said the EU limit for the insecticide was 0.01 ppm.

 

Spain is home to Europe's biggest animal feed industry and needs to import upwards of 10 million tonnes of grain every year because farmers cannot grow enough to meet demand in the country's harsh climate and poor soil.

 

Like several countries in Europe, Spain has recently been importing the feed grain sorghum to provide a cheaper alternative to wheat, which is trading on world markets at its highest level since August 2008.

 

Farmers across the 27-country EU bloc say many are deeply in the red after a surge in feed costs, largely driven by bad weather and worries of food inflation, and fear herds will shrink and many farms fall into disuse in the coming months.

 

Cesfac noted that Spanish imports of sorghum so far in the 2010/11 market year came from the US.