COUNTY FOCUS ▶▶▶
The ban on GMO use is widely supported in Poland
Feedstuff in the spotlight The coronavirus pandemic caught the Polish feed industry in the middle of a critical transition period. Some market partici- pants in Poland hope that the crisis will prompt the Agricul- tural Ministry to delay the introduction of the ban on geneti- cally modified (GM) components in animal feed. This is a subject of fierce discussion in Poland. The date of entry of this ban has been postponed several times until 1 January, 2013, then until 1 January, 2017, until 1 January, 2019, and finally until 1 January, 2021. Every time, this happened under the pressure of feed mills, which raised concerns about a possible shortage of protein. According to government data, soybean meal is an essential component of animal feed (Poland im- ports around two million tonnes per year, mainly from Argen- tina, Brazil, and the USA. The Polish Ministry of Agriculture en- visages at least partially becoming independent from the import of soybean meal. The idea of banning GMO compo- nents in feed production is popular in Polish society, but is opposed by business. “Right now, it’s not possible to ban the use of GM feed materials for feed production due to limited non-GM sources of those materials. Additionally, it has been scientifically proved that the use of GM feeds does not impact the quality and safety of animal products derived from ani- mals fed with GM feeds,” Zymerman said. “The available non- GMO soybean is expensive. The government is making a huge mistake banning the imported GM products,” commented a local market participant who wished not to be named. ‘We are trading low costs for some illusion of more feed safety –
Poland aims to cut dependence on imported sources of protein.
there is no scientific data that shows that GM soybean could harm animals. Let’s not forget that all our competitors world- wide are using GMO – this means at the end of the day their products are more attractive priced on the shelves.”
New trends For Polish feed companies, life is returning to normal as quar- antine restrictions are gradually lifted. “Fortunately, lifting country public restrictions, opening borders for tourism, re- suming restaurants, and catering services hopefully will allow us to return to normal production. Nevertheless, we expect that year-on-year decline in industrial feed production in Po- land may amount to about 5%,” Zarzycki added. The country’s feed additives imports, which were disrupted during the ini- tial period of the pandemic, are also recovering. “Due to the significant livestock number and feed production in Poland, our country is a big importer of feed additives. There are some local manufacturers; however, most of the products are coming from European and Asian feed additive producers. Our local production capacity covers internal market demand only when it comes to production of feed premixes,” Zarzycki said. “In the initial period of the Covid-19 pandemic, due to the suspension of production and logistics problems, there were problems with the supply of some additives that are mainly imported from China, which increased market prices. Currently, as trade is more stable, local suppliers as well as producers of premixes and feeds have managed to rebuild stocks,” Zarzycki said. It’s not likely that the crisis will change the main trends in the industry. “When it comes to market trends, our consumers pay more and more attention to ani- mal welfare and the safety of feed production. A good exam- ple may be monitoring and limiting the use of antibiotics in animal husbandry, which leads to the introduction of alterna- tive additives, ensuring an appropriate level of animal health in large-scale livestock production,” Zarzycki added.
28 ▶ ALL ABOUT FEED | Volume 28, No. 6, 2020
PHOTO: VLADISLAV VOROTNIKOV
PHOTO: VLADISLAV VOROTNIKOV
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
