LLPs

The European Union is not self-sufficient in oilseeds and has to rely on imports to cover the food and feed industry demand for vegetable proteins and oils. Imports are a vital complement to the EU raw material supply. Putting forward the example of soybeans, the EU production covers only 7% with little fluctuation for the past 10 years. The increase in EU production is limited due to agronomic and climatic and cannot replace imports.

Though critical for the European market, imports remain under constant threat caused by a possible presence of the traces of GM events that have not yet been authorized in the EU but have already been safety assessed and authorized in the exporting countries. Such presence is unintentional and  despite all efforts technically unavoidable.

The current EU GM regulation 1830/2004 puts in place zero tolerance for the low level presence of not yet EU authorized GM events. The time gap in the authorizations between the EU and exporting countries together with the rapidly increasing area and number of GM events cultivated worldwide, exposes EU operators to significant disadvantage and legal uncertainty.
FEDIOL together with partners from the EU food and feed chain is calling upon the EU Commission to present a LLP policy aimed at providing a lasting solution to the problem of low level presence for food and feed industry operators.