Red Tractor protects access to EU's biofuels market for Crops membership

Farmers will have continued access to the biofuels market after the EU said it would recognise Red Tractor under the Renewable Energy Directive (RED).

Brexit changes to the EU's RED had threatened to remove all UK farm assured growers from the bloc's biofuels market at the end of 2023.

A UK-wide industry effort, spearheaded by Red Tractor and other assurance bodies, was launched to avert this negative outcome.

Following two years of talks, the news means that UK farmers will see benefits such as avoiding additional audit requests and preventing UK grain being displaced by imported RED certified grain.

Red Tractor combinable crops chairman, Kit Papworth explained the EU's decision to renew Red Tractor's accreditation to RED was 'a hugely positive outcome for all UK arable farmers'.

He said: "While not all UK farmers choose to grow specifically for the biofuels market, the accreditation also has the potential to lift the grain price for all crops growers."

Grain must be certified in order to be used for biofuels: If Red Tractor was not recognised by both the EU and the UK government, farmers would be required to have an additional audit to certify their grain if they wanted to supply into the biofuels supply chain.

These audits are very subject specific and can only be carried out by a few specialised organisations, who are EU approved.

They are considerably more expensive than a Red Tractor audit and only provide access to the biofuels market.

If the UK schemes lost their RED recognition, RED certified grain would be imported by the biofuels plants as the product cannot go to market without full supply chain certification.

NFU crops and oilseed chairman, Matt Culley said that arable farmers in England and Wales could easily have lost access to the EU biofuels market at the end of 2023.

"The team at Red Tractor has worked tirelessly over the past two years to understand the challenges in detail and explore every available solution.

"This has enabled continued access to this vital multimillion pound market for those arable farmers."