New ministers are being urged to act quickly to remove the crippling uncertainty over the UK farming industry’s requirements for sourcing soya next year.
One of the pieces of regulation interrupted by the general election was the UK Forestry Risks Commodities (UKFRC) legislation, which will introduce a ‘due diligence requirement on certain forest risk commodities’, including soya. It is proposed that it will prevent soya coming from land illegally deforested or converted to farmland.
At the end of July, all the leading UK retailers, as part of the Retail Soy Group, called on the new government to move rapidly to introduce the legislation and align it more closely with similar EU legislation, the EU Deforestation Regulation, due to come into force at the start of next year.
In a letter to Defra secretary Steve Reed, the retailers said deforestation and land conversion continue to take place across many global supply chains.
“The demand for soya for animal feed continues to drive the incentive for this continued loss of critical ecosystem,” they said.
They added that the previous government’s failure to deliver the UKFRC, despite being a keystone of the Environment Act 2021, was jeopardising the ability of British farmers and the food sector to access the European market when the EUDR enters into force in January 2025.
“While the UK’s legislation does not mirror the EU’s in its entirety, the continued delay and absence of the UKFRC is contributing to further market confusion and is hindering retailer efforts to deliver on our shared commitment to eliminate deforestation and land conversion. Further inaction puts the UK at risk of becoming a dumping ground for deforestation-connected commodities,” the retailers warned.
Recommendations
With less than six months to go until the EUDR is due to come into force, the UK retailers called on the government to act on five recommendations, the first of which is to introduce the UKFRC legislation within its first hundred days in office to at least deliver some clarity on its timings and details.
They called for clarity on whether the food sector in Northern Ireland needs to comply only with the UKFRC or with the EUDR, as well, and asked the government to align UKFRC more closely with EUDR, in order to promote frictionless trade between the UK and key trading partners.
The two pieces of legislation vary in a number of ways. The most problematic difference is in demonstrating deforestation-free sourcing. While the EUDR is explicit in its requirements – using due diligence statements and geolocation monitoring of land, the UK’s approach ‘could be at risk of interpretation as to what constitutes sufficient due diligence’, the retailers claimed. “At the minimum, UKFRC guidance would benefit from an explicit recognition that an EUDR-compliant supply chain is considered sufficient due diligence within the UKFRC,” they said.
The letter urged the government to work with retailers to highlight the areas where further clarity will accelerate supply chain transformation.
Pig industry concerns
While the retail concerns appear to be largely focused on disruption to UK-EU trading relations, the pig sector is facing its own concerns, which include the uncertainty over the availability and price of soya next year. Significant premiums have been reported on soya purchased for early 2025 compared with end of 2024.
NPA chief executive Lizzie Wilson agreed with the need for regulatory clarity at UK level. “There is huge uncertainty for producers about the availability and price of soya going into 2025, and we echo these calls for clarity over the UK regulatory timings and details.
“Once we have this clarity, we also urge all parties to take a sensible approach to implementation that takes full account of the availability of verified soya and avoids shortages that lead to dramatic prices hikes. We also reiterate that if retailers wish to press ahead with voluntary measures that go beyond regulatory requirements, they should cover the extra costs associated with this.”
A Defra spokesperson said the UK is ‘committed to taking action to ensure that UK consumption of forest risk commodities is not driving illegal deforestation’ and that the department would set out its approach to implementing the UKFRC ‘in due course’.