Image: Pixabay
The European Commission's (EC) push for deforestation-free products in the agricultural supply chain has raised concerns from European Union (EU) trade associations representing the grains, oilseeds, crushing and animal feed sectors, following adoption by the EC in June 28, of the Environment Council's General Approach to the proposal.
In a joint statement, the three trade associations – EU Vegetable Oil and Protein Meal Industry Association (FEDIOL), EU Trade Association for cereals, rice, feed, oilseeds, olive oil, oils and fats (COCERAL) and Federation of Feed Manufacturers of the EU (FEFAC) – welcomed some elements of the proposals, such as the council's initiative to avoid duplication of due diligence.
However, they expressed concern that no significant changes were presented in traceability, cooperation with third countries and the chain of custody.
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“Even if some farmers are able to meet this [traceability to trace] requirement, collecting geo-location data from smallholders and cooperatives faces important technical, logistical, legal and governance challenges that cannot be addressed by companies alone. ,” the associations said in their June 29 statement.
“If such challenges are not resolved under a multi-stakeholder approach involving local governments, local industry actors, EU operators, the European Commission and NGOs, companies will not be able to collect reliable geo-location to plot information for the majority of customers. smallholders who are currently part of their supply chains.”
The associations urged the EC to address the challenges through forestry partnerships, development assistance and any other means available before implementing and enforcing the regulation's geo-location requirement for plotting.
Although the EC proposal did not explicitly refer to the chain of custody required for the delivery of deforestation-free products, its inclusion of “risk of mixing with products of unknown origin or produced in areas where deforestation or forest degradation has occurred or is occurring” as Part of an operator's risk assessment assumed that deforestation-free products could not be physically mixed with products that had not been verified as “deforestation-free,” the organizations said.
“If this type of mixing is not allowed… it will have a disruptive and trade-distorting effect on global soy supply chains to the EU, while undermining commitments and efforts already made in areas at high risk of deforestation” , the statement said.
“It would be necessary to build new infrastructure (field elevators, silos, crushing lines or plants, port loading) at such prohibitive costs that operators in most large ports would likely refrain from investment,” the associations added. “As a result, supply flows to the EU are expected to be considerably reduced and to shift from high-risk to low-risk areas, abandoning all positive engagement and incentives for farmers to halt deforestation.”
The associations said the sector was ready to work with the EC and other stakeholders to address the challenges.
Per: Oils & Fats International (OFI)
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