View From Europe
By Colin Ley
Newly nimble meets morass of post-Brexi t bureaucracy Measured against the pressures of the past 12 months, we are undoubtedly making progress in dealing with the human and economic devastation caused by Covid-19, a fact which warrants some celebration. Measured against pre-pandemic normality, however, we’re still in a pretty deep hole with an enormous recovery process ahead of us. I hesitate to toss Brexit into the mix, but the first two months of the
new UK/EU settlement have been far from smooth, as highlighted by the European Parliament’s failure to even set a date on which to ratify the Brexit trade deal. And then there’s the USA. The good news, at least for Scottish
malt barley growers and their whisky-making customers, is that Donald Trump’s tariffs on a range of goods have been suspended by the fledgling Biden administration. That has removed a 25% tariff on Scotch whisky, cutting it to zero for the next four months. The bad news is still to be revealed, working on the basis that there
is no such thing as a free lunch. Whether or not that means preparing for US-produced hormone beef and chlorinated chicken appearing on the UK’s supermarket shelves, or something else, remains open to speculation. The UK’s International Trade Secretary, Liz Truss, is convinced
though. “This is Global Britain in action, securing new opportunities as a newly nimble nation,” she said, adding that the tariff suspension shows that both the UK and the US are determined to “work together to build back better and take our trading relationship to new heights”. The ‘newly nimble’ soundbite didn’t chime, however, with the latest
Roadway update produced by the Road Haulage Association (RHA), whose members are at the sharp end of making the country’s not so nimble import/export systems work. “The end of the grace period for goods coming into the UK from
the EU ends next month, and the RHA is extremely worried about the impact this will have,” said the Association on March 3. “From Thursday 1 April 2021, export health certificates will be
required for animal products coming from Europe. Full customs checks will then follow on Tuesday 1, June 2021. These new checks will add further red tape to a supply chain already struggling to navigate the morass of post-Brexit bureaucracy.” Newly nimble meets morass…all to be continued as 2021
unfolds.
Feed versus renewable energy An emerging Covid-19 impact, and one with direct relevance to our industry, concerns the stalling effect which the pandemic has had on
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the European Union’s energy transition towards being carbon neutral by 2050. Prior to our year of lockdowns and furlough schemes, 2020 was set
to be the launch pad for the European Green Deal (EGD). Now, after 12 months of unavoidable inaction, the EU is very much in EGD relaunch mode, with its €672.5 billion Covid-19 Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) set to provide a major injection of funding into the bioenergy sector. This has obvious implications regarding the percentage of food and feed crops that might find their way into renewable energy production at the expense of being made available to livestock farmers via compound rations. The current review and ‘possible revision’ of the Renewable Energy
Directive has therefore prompted the release of a FEFAC position paper on the subject, complete with a warning that the feed v energy issue needs careful management. FEFAC stressed that the EU’s desire to increase targets for the
use of biofuels, drawn from food and feed crops, needs to be balanced by an accelerated shift towards the development of advanced biofuels produced from industrial waste streams and biomass resources. The feed trade body further commented that the current 7% of
food and feed crops, accepted as a contribution to renewable energy production, represents a ‘good compromise’ in balancing the respective requirements of the food and energy sectors. FEFAC also pointed out that the EU compound feed industry
already plays its environmental part through the positive conversion of approximately 20 million tonnes of inedible food industry co-products into high nutrition animal feeds. This process, it claimed, helps to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions from feed production, contributes to the circular economy, strengthens the EU’s striving to increase its self-sufficiency in feed protein production, prevents food losses, and contributes to food security and the increased resilience of the EU feed and food chain.
I’m sure we’ll hear more on this as the year progresses.
Powering progress Congratulations to Royal De Heus on an impressive display of confidence in the strength of the post-pandemic market, with the family-owned Dutch compound feed business announcing the acquisition of the Polish feed business, Golpasz S.A. I put it to Joost Belt, Group Director, Marketing & Communication,
at De Heus, that the move meant the company is positive about the future and is investing now in the firm belief that the post-Covid market will be strong. Absolutely correct, he replied, adding: “We expect that, after
Covid-19, the demand for animal proteins will recover and the feed market with it.” The Golpasz business has annual feed sales of almost 500,000
tonnes, making the company a market leader in Poland’s turkey feed sector and a major performer in broiler feed. De Heus already has considerable strength in Poland and is now set to expand further through no fewer than twelve plants located across the country. The deal is a good reminder of the company’s enduring commitment
to producing and selling compound feed, despite the occasional disruption, of which Covid-19 has been one of the worst. Established in 1911, De Heus has faced its share of external pressures as the business
Comment section is sponsored by Compound Feed Engineering Ltd
www.cfegroup.com
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