The EU faces renewed disruption to animal feed supplies this year unless policymakers find a rapid solution to traces of genetically modified organisms (GMO) in soy imports, industry groups have warned.
 
Last autumn, imports of soy from the US came to a near standstill due to the EU's zero-tolerance rule on shipments containing tiny traces of GMOs not yet approved in the bloc.
 
"This spring new GM varieties will be commercially sown in north and south America which are unlikely to be approved in the EU by October," Klaus-Dieter Schumacher, head of markets at European grain trade association Coceral, said.
 
John Dalli, the EU health commissioner who oversees EU GMO policy, said he would propose a solution to the so-called "low-level presence" of unauthorised GMOs in imports in the coming weeks.
 
Schumacher believes the executive European Commission will most likely propose new technical guidance under existing EU rules on food and feed imports, telling member states how to interpret the zero-tolerance rule when testing shipments,
 
This could provide a small margin of tolerance for the backlog of GM crop varieties approved in other countries for which EU authorisations have been submitted but not yet granted.
 
But such a technical approach will only provide a stop-gap solution, and the EU will have to agree a lasting policy on the low-level presence of GMOs in imports, argues Alexander Doering, secretary-general of EU feed manufacturers' federation Fefac.
 
Meanwhile, EU importers face higher costs for sourcing animal feed free of unapproved GMOs from major suppliers such as the US and Brazil, as traders are forced to keep shipments bound for Europe separate from other global supply routes to avoid contamination.
 
Copa-Cogeca estimated that this added between EUR3.5 billion and EUR5.5 billion to the cost of feed imports last year.