GM crops policy forces feed crisis

European agriculture ministers have met to discuss a potential crisis that could result in huge rises in the price of feed.

The crisis has arisen because of the European Union’s tough stance on GM crops. The problems caused by current EU policy have been raised by all sectors of livestock farming.

This summer shipments of United States soya have been blocked at European ports after traces of banned GM varieties were discovered in them. The problem is dust and other traces of non-approved GM from previous shipments left in ships, trucks and railway wagons used to transport the soya.

EU ministers have now been warned that all shipments of soya from the United States to the EU could be halted because traders may be unwilling to take the financial risk of having cargoes rejected on arrival and subsequently destroyed.

The threat was spelled out to ministers by Mariann Fischer Boel, European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, who told them that 200,000 tonnes of US soya had been denied entry to the EU up to the middle of July. "Traders speak already of stopping soya imports from the US completely," she said.

The issue was raised with agriculture ministers during their monthly meeting. It was not originally scheduled for discussion, but was raised by the commissioner because of the seriousness of the threat to the livestock industry.

"We all know how much Europe depends on imports of protein feedstuff and in particular of soya," she said. "During the last nine campaigns the EU imported on average 32 million tonnes of soya bean equivalents."

She said that soya was imported from the United States particularly from November to March when imports from South America reduced. She said that imports from the USA would be even more important during the coming winter because of a number of factors. There was a 30 per cent drop in production in Argentina, one of the EU’s main suppliers, because of drought; stocks in South America were unusually small and there was an increase in demand for soya beans from China.

"Under these circumstances, a complete loss of soya imports from the USA over the coming months risks causing a serious shortage. In any case it would add to increasing soya bean prices, even if additional quantities can be provided by Brazil and Argentina," she said. "Let me tell you the last thing we need at this moment is a raise in feed prices."

She said she could understand the sensitivity of growing crops in a member state and the need for extra caution when the issue involved totally unknown GM varieties straight out of the laboratory, but that was not the case. The GM maize involved in the cross-contamination this summer had been proposed for approval by the EU commission but had not yet received that approval.

"It is not the first time that we have been confronted with problems relating to the low level presence of EU-unauthorised GMOs in shipments from the USA. We have already had to deal with Herculex maize in 2007 and last year we managed to approve the Roundup Ready 2 soya bean just in time before cultivation would begin in the USA."

She said it had already become clear that the issue of asynchronous authorisation (GM varieties approved in another country but not in the EU) was likely to create problems in the future. "Unlike previous incidents, what happened this summer is that minute traces of unauthorised GM material originated from a crop other than that of the cargo. The imported soya was either non-GM or approved GM and during transport or handling it had been in contact with a very small amount of a GM maize that is currently not approved in the European Union.

"I have to highlight at this stage that we are talking about traces below the commonly agreed level of detection of 0.1 per cent, of a GM maize that has already received a positive assessment by the European Safety Authority. This maize has also been submitted to a vote at a regulatory committee last July, a vote which unfortunately, and as usual if I dare say, resulted in an absence of opinion in favour or against. So we are not talking about a product we know nothing about."

She said the latest incidents were the tip of the iceberg. "For the moment, the issue of low level presence of EU-unathorised GMOs concerns soya imports from the USA and, as far as feed is concerned this summer, it’s only one unapproved GM maize variety that is involved. However, we have to be aware that in the future the problem will get worse as it may extend to other products and other countries. The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission is talking about an increase in the number of GM currently commercialised worldwide from now around 30 to 120 in 2015." She said the EU needed to act to accelerate authorisation procedures.

The United Kingdom Government recently announced that it wanted to see the authorisation process speeded up after listening to the concerns of the livestock industry in this country. After the recent meeting of agriculture ministers, a spokeswoman for the council of ministers said that the United Kingdom was one of the countries pressing for a solution to the crisis during the meeting. Other countries in favour of action were Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. Countries more reluctant to relax the current position include Austria, Poland and Hungary.

Green groups are lobbying for the EU to stick to its strict rules, arguing that GMOs threaten biodiversity, could contaminate conventional crops and also pose a health risk. But Thomas Mielke, chief executive officer of German oilseeds analysts Oil World, said, "The trade and the industry in the EU simply cannot live with this zero tolerance policy for non-approved GMO varieties."

EU industry may face a supply gap of about four million tonnes of soya meal and one million tonnes of soybean oil, which would have repercussions all along the food chain, said Klaus-Dieter Schumacher of EU grain trade lobby Coceral.

Coceral, EU feed industry association FEFAC and food manufacturers association CIAA estimate the impact of a loss of US soybean imports until March 2010 at between 3.5 billion and 5 billion euros. Alternatives to soya are urgently being sought.

"There are certain substitution possibilities on the side of the ruminant feeds, but at a price," said Alexander Doering from FEFAC, referring to rapeseed meal and feed grains. "But for poultry, there is no other product you can substitute soybean meal with, there is no other protein source with the same level and the same quality of proteins."

Jorge de Saja, director of the Spanish Animal Feed Compounders’ Association, said he hoped a political solution would be found in coming weeks. "There is some soya in storage and we are looking at protein alternatives," he said. "But we are concerned and are watching the situation closely."

European agriculture ministers will meet again this month when the issue of GM crops will be discussed further.