November 28, 2007

EU feed groups say GM crops needed for feed

European feed associations COCERAL (Comite du Commerce des cereals) and FEFAC (European Feed Manufacturers Association) urge the EU farm council to take a serious look at the conclusions stated in the DG AGRI Report "Economic Impact of Unapproved GMOs on EU feed imports and livestock production".

The groups stress EU should import more than 10 million tonnes of cereals to meet its requirements, otherwise, EU consumers will ultimately have to buy purchase and livestock products from third countries produced from GM feeds that the region has not approved.

The worldwide acreage of GM crops is rapidly increasing (100 million hectares in 22 countries) but with the current EU policy, exports to Europe are impossible, according to the report.

Jean Michel Aspar, COCERAL President said that both the Brazilian and Argentine farm ministers, in recent visits, stressed to the European Commission that they would not be able to guarantee absence of non-EU approved GM events in grain and oilseeds exports to the EU, even for supplies which carry a "non-GM" certificate.

Aspar warns ministers that "the economic impact of even a temporary breakdown of supplies with soy products to operators in the feed and food chain would be catastrophic. This danger is exacerbated by the high world demand for feed grains and oilseeds (mainly soy and soymeal) especially in South-East Asia, which is overtaking Europe as the main buyer for feeding stuffs from Brazil and Argentina". For this reason, he is calling the region's farm ministers to "turn the political key to relieve pressure from EU livestock producers by approving GM crops for import and processing which have obtained a positive EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) opinion and by setting a workable threshold for low-level presence of GM events which have been approved in export countries according to OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) standards.

Pedro Correa de Barros, FEFAC President, said that the current de-facto import ban for corn gluten feed and Argentine feed corn has already led to an extra cost of 2 billion euros for EU-livestock producers. The EU's GM policy results in an "artificial feed and food price inflation", which could affect the purchasing power of EU citizens. Until now, the bill has been paid by the EU livestock industry, in particular the EU pig industry whose viability is at stake, as pig producers are not able to recover the extra-feed costs from the market.

Barros in a statement said: "FEFAC is in favour of setting a workable threshold for low level presence in feed of GM events not yet approved in the EU. Such a threshold must be set at a level that is technically and economically practical. FEFAC and COCERAL put their expertise at the disposal of the EU decision makers to that end".

He added that this threshold is a prerequisite to maintain a viable supply of products of animal origin to EU consumers, regardless of the GM or "non-GM" status of feed supplies to livestock farmers.