Major concerns regarding the EU’s approach to the shaping of European policy and legislation on plant protection products, and their impact along the entire agri-food chain, have been voiced today by no fewer than 19 EU trade and representative bodies, including FEFAC, the European Feed Manufacturers’ Federation.
‘Solutions are urgently needed to ensure the competitiveness of the entire agri-food chain and the supply of high quality products for European consumers,” declared a statement from the EU-based Agri Food Chain Roundtable.
The organisation, of which FEFAC is part, went on to call for the creation of a “regulatory framework that allows for innovation” to ensure the future availability of suitable plant protection solutions.
The Roundtable’s list of current complaints include concerns over the difficulty of bringing new products to the market, regulatory uncertainties, the varying pace of implementation between countries and the “burdensome and costly rules” being applied to the approval of new substances for growers to use.
“The product approval process now takes 4-6 years, two years longer than under the previous legislation,” said the Roundtable, adding that the “permanent revaluation of existing substances based on new requirements further limit the available toolbox for growers”.
As a result, the 19-body organisation warned that the food security of European trade was being put at risk.
“The lack of appropriate solutions to protect certain crops could lead to shortage of EU production,” it said, calling on both EU and member state authorities to ensure that the policies for plant protection products are, from now on, implemented in a “coherent manner” across the EU.
FEFAC consists of national associations in 24 EU member states as well as associations in Switzerland, Turkey, Serbia, Russia and Norway, representing a European compound feed industry which supplies 30% of the feed requirements of all the EU-28’s farm animals.