Feed sector businesses have huge innovation potential to improve the feed efficiency of the EU livestock sector but desperately need a “speeding up” of Europe’s regulatory approval system concerning the authorisation of new feed additives.
This was the challenge issued by the president of the EU Association of Specialty Feed Ingredients & Mixtures (FEFANA), Marco Bruni, when he addressed a recent animal nutrition event in Brussels.
“There is a strong market demand for the products we deliver, but we often find ourselves caught in a slowly operating regulatory approval process,” he told 170 delegates attending an Innovation in Animal Nutrition conference in the Belgian capital.
Speaking on behalf of a European feed ingredients industry which commands a turnover worth almost £4 billion a year, he urged EU policy makers and risk assessors to streamline their approval process.
He also stressed that investment in scientific research in animal nutrition and in innovation, as well as more stakeholder dialogue, were “prerequisites” to converting the feed sector’s vision for the future into reality.
Mr Bruni shared the conference platform in Brussels with the president of FEFAC, Ruud Tijssens, unveiling their joint-vision of a “modern feed industry” that is intent on shaping a smart, resource efficient Europe, through innovation and public-private partnerships.