New guidelines covering the responsible sourcing of soya for use in animal feeds have been published by FEFAC, the European Feed Manufacturers’ Federation.
The aim of the new document, which was released in draft form in March this year, is to enable feed suppliers to ensure they are sourcing soya from growers who “respect” a range of environmental, social and economic elements in line with key baseline criteria.
“The guidelines are the long-awaited game changer to lift responsible soya out of the current niche market in Europe,” said FEFAC president, Ruud Tijssens, adding that the new rules would also “foster” the implementation and development of new legislation in exporting countries.
FEFAC is also developing a “customised independent benchmarking tool” with the help of the International Trade Centre to enable individual feed businesses to “verify” whether their respective standard or programme meets the feed industry’s minimum requirements, as outlined in the new guidelines. This will become available as an online tool next month.