Post Brexit: Secure supply of feed additives and ingredients is key

In its 2023 Outlook, the AIC said it will be engaging with policy makers to represent member’s concerns, including the Retained EU Legislation Bill, to ensure supply remains consistent.

As part of the legislation, the UK Government is looking at the Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) approval process and a revision of the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) regulations, as well as the need for greater coordination between regulatory agencies and Government departments.

Joanne Gatcliffe, AIC Animal Feed sector chair, is keen to build on some of the successes of last year, which saw progress in 3 key areas:

1. Extension of zinc oxide use by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate: This saw the AIC, as a member of the Pig Health and Welfare Council sub-group on antimicrobial use work with the Veterinary Medicines Directorate to extend the use of zinc oxide at medicated levels to end of shelf life, meaning producers could continue using the product for up to 2 years beyond the original cut-off date of 26 June 2022. Retained EU legislation meant that its use at medicated levels in feed would have ended on this date.

2. Development of Global Feed LCA Institute (GFLI) data subset – enabling members to deliver accurate data on the emissions associated with feed. The subset provides greenhouse gas data for the most commonly used feed ingredients in UK feeds and data on inbound transport emissions for imported materials.

3. Development of a GB Register of Feed Materials – this was agreed last autumn following consultation with the Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland, AIC and other feed industry groups covering the feed additive, pet and equine sectors. Retained EU legislation means UK businesses no longer had access to the EU Register, meaning there was no way for new feed materials to be notified to the UK industry representatives as required by legislation.

Feed materials register

James McCulloch, head of feed sector at AIC, said the register of feed materials, with its online platform for the notification of new feed materials, represented a significant step forward for the feed industry in its compliance with legislation.

“This will benefit those UK businesses wishing to place new feed materials on the market in GB (Northern Ireland still follows EU regulations) and those feed manufacturers who might be looking for new materials to use.”

On-farm grain trading qualification

Turning to the arable sector, Jonathan Lane, AIC head of arable marketing said key priorities for the current year were to help provide a recognised certificate of competence for individuals operating within the grain trade by updating and relaunching the on-farm grain trading qualification, work with Government and stakeholders to overcome non-tariff barriers on exports, to non-EU and EU markets and improve communications across the sector.

Digital grain passport

One of the ongoing issues that has yet to be resolved is the progression of a digital grain passport, which has been an ongoing issue for the sector for the past 10 years. AIC believes more work need to be done to address “the fundamental questions of governance, ownership, long-term funding and communication.”