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| Patrick Vanden Avenne, Fefac president |
In early June around 80 delegates gathered in the historical centre of Bruges, Belgium for the 54th General Assembly of Fefac, representing the European feed industry. “The past year was the year of ‘living dangerously’ for the feed industry," Fefac president Patrick Vanden Avenne said in his opening speech. “We had to face tremendous volatility of raw material prices since last summer with the resulting need for a sharp increase in working capital and difficulty in managing our margin and profitability,” he said. At the same time the livestock producers had the greatest difficulty in passing on their higher production costs to the slaughterhouses and ultimately the consumer. At the end of 2010 the dioxin crisis in Germany exacerbated the concerns in the European pig sector especially.
But despite the crisis that the industry had to face Vanden Avenne wanted to bring a positive message. “Our European feed and livestock sector showed its great resilience,” he said and concluded that “it has remained overall and through the crises a vibrant sector showing the strength to rebound and to innovate.” The Fefac strategy is to continue promoting R&D, efficiency and sustainability. “The EU is the feed laboratory of the world,” Vanden Avenne said. He explained that because of the legal constraints and market developments the feed sector quickly responds to change. “Most innovations are developed in Europe and we see that after a while they are exported and adopted in countries outside the EU.”
“The development model for the European feed and livestock sector is indeed about two things: technological innovation and sustainability. They are the two sides of one coin, they are Siamese twins,” Vanden Avenne said. As an example the Fefac President announced the reintroduction of processed animal proteins (PAP), which will evidently make a contribution to a sustainable reduction of imported proteins and a more sustainable use of what is now often considered waste material.
“Increasing the use of biofuel co-products for monogastric animals will also lead to a more sustainable use of indigenous proteins while a large effort of R&D, and development of new production technologies and additives will be needed to maximise the potential value of these biofuel co-products,” Vanden Avenne said.Products such as DDGS are in demand in Europe and companies would gladly import larger volumes, especially for ruminant feeds, but current GMO-rules prohibit this. “The hard-won concession from the EU Standing Committee on Biotechnology, [on allowing traces of non-authorised, but EFSA risk-assessed GM events in feed supplies] is an important step forward but insufficient to keep market access to vital feed imports,” Vanden Avenne said.
“Increasing the use of biofuel co-products will also lead to a more sustainable use of indigenous proteins.” |
The so-called ‘technical solution’ is only short term. It might even be possible that the next crop of foreign maize cannot be imported into the EU. “We must fear that we will lose access to Brazilian Maize and US corngluten and DDGS due to the planting and harvesting of the Syngenta MIR 162 for which EFSA has not even adopted an opinion yet,” Vanden Avenne said.
Feed carbon footprint project
Sustainability is not a buzzword anymore but has become integrated into the policies of many companies. Fefac announced that they have reached a unique agreement with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) to begin a joint project on life cycle analysis and carbon footprint of compound feed and its ingredients. In this project on creating a global feed database Fefac’s American counterpart AFIA is also participating, as well as seven leading European feed compounders. Asian and South American partners are not interested yet. “It is a coalition of the willing,” Vanden Avenne said.
“In the end a preventative strategy is cheaper than a reactive one.” |
The main objective of the project is to make a key step forward towards the standardisation of LCA methodology for feed, concentrating on carbon footprint calculation. The project is to start in September and will last for 15 months. In the end the first global database on greenhouse gas emissions for key feed ingredients should be presented, which should contain default carbon footprint values.
Sustainable soy
Vanden Avenne added that 2010 was also the year of the long awaited adoption of the global Round Table of Responsible Soy (RTRS) standard, but also noticed that a classical ‘chicken or egg’ situation about offer and demand is arising. “Who is pushing and who is pulling in which direction to ensure that RTRS soy will fulfil our ultimate objective – provide a mainstream market, low-premium solution for responsible soy,” he said.
“Ultimately, RTRS’ success will depend on business commitments in the feed, food and fuel sector and I am therefore good to see our Dutch, UK and Belgian companies’ commitments for a progressive uptake of RTRS certified soybean meal, knowing that RTRS needs to address bottlenecks regarding farm certification,” he added. In the first week of June the first shipment of RTRS soy was unloaded in the port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The shipment of 85,000 tonnes was supplied by the Brazilian company Grupo André Maggi. Another 135,000 tonnes is to follow soon. Compared to ‘regular’ soy this is only a small batch, and participants believe RTRS will only be successful if countries like the US and China also participate. Opponents say large companies such as ADM and Cargill use RTRS as a cover to provide themselves with a sustainability label.
Animal health and welfare
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| Jim Moynagh |
Fefac’s meeting was further dedicated to the feed impact on animal health and animal welfare. Several speakers commented on this topic. Jim Moynagh (see photo), head of the unit Animal Nutrition of DG Sanco of the EU Commission elaborated on the commission’s perspective on the EU health regulation on feed. The underlying motto of the EU is ‘prevention is better than cure’. This EU strategy, laid out in the Animal Health Law (http://ec.europa.eu/food/animal/diseases/strategy/index_en.htm), is expected to be proposed in 2012. “In the end a preventative strategy is cheaper than a reactive one,” Moynagh said. “With a reactive strategy in the case of an outbreak the general public is faced with huge costs, while with being proactive the initial investments are high, but the costs in the end are much lower.”
Another pillar of the DG Sanco policy is animal welfare. A major milestone for animal welfare was attained with the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009. The recognition that animals are “sentient beings” is now part of Article 13 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. With the Lisbon Treaty, all Sanco policies came under the ordinary legislative procedure giving the European Parliament a direct influence on the future debate on the welfare of farm animals. In May 2010, the Parliament called in a resolution for the adoption of a European general animal welfare law as well as for the establishment of a European network of reference centres.
The Commission is currently working to adopt a new strategy for animal welfare by the end of this year, Moynagh informed. “Further actions on enforcement and harmonisation are required. Enforcement of animal welfare remains a serious issue and efforts need to be maintained and enhanced in order to ensure proper implementation. The strategy should also aim at ensuring fair competition between EU and non-EU producers as well as empowering EU consumers to make informed choices about the animal welfare dimension of their food.”
Veterinary medicines
The European commission realises that the availability of effective veterinary medicines is of vital importance. “We must remember that as well as the big “headline” diseases such as Foot and Mouth Disease and Classical Swine Fever, the diseases of lower significance can seriously hamper production and therefore the competitiveness of the farming sector, or even potentially endanger our food supply,” Moynagh said.
The current review of the rules on veterinary medicines covers everything – from authorisation, production, distribution and advertising rules, up to homeopathic medicines. “This is a huge challenge to which everyone must rise. But, let us not forget, this challenge also provides a massive opportunity for a fundamental re-think of how to modernise and improve the system,” he said. The Commission aims to adopt a legal proposal on veterinary medicinal products next year.
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| Wolfgang Trunk |
The Commission also aims to make a legal proposal on medicated feed. There is evidence that the current situation leads to distortion concerning the production and use of medicated feed. Regulation (EC) No 767/2009 on the placing on the market and use of feed has just been delivered. Furthermore the use of feed additives in animal feed is regulated through (EC) No. 1831/2003. Here also coccidiostats and histomonostats have a special status within this regulation. Although there is discussion on moving these products to the antibiotic group, Wolfgang Trunk (see photo), policy officer at DG Sanco in Brussels, confirmed that it is the intention to maintain the current status. He said the products are indispensible in animal feed, simply because there are no alternatives.
Furthermore Trunk also said that the use of antibiotics cannot be regulated by impeding the route of animal feed. “Studies show that there is no correlation. And as soon as this would happen, there will be another route in which the antibiotics will be administered,” he said. Trunk also said that medicated feeds will remain and can only be administered through veterinary prescription.
Antimicrobial resistance
Resistance to antimicrobials (AMR) as a result of abundant use in livestock farming is a hot topic as more resistant bacteria emerge. Moynagh said that “appropriate use of antimicrobials by all parties is the only way forward if we want to treat patients and animals with effective medicines in the future.” He said that the focus must be on the key parties: pharmaceutical industry, feed industry, veterinarians and farmers. “All must take their responsibility to reduce the very serious public health risks in relation to AMR.”
“The use of antibiotics cannot be regulated by impeding the route of animal feed.” |
For a start the European Platform for the Responsible Use of Medicines in Animals, EPRUMA, was initiated to promote appropriate antimicrobial use in animal husbandry. To encourage a truly holistic approach the Commission is developing a Communication on AMR to be presented on 18 November 2011 – the European Antibiotic Awareness Day for 2011. This Communication will contain concrete proposals for further actions to address the problem of AMR for both public and animal health.
Source: All About Feed, vol 2 nr 6, 2011
