Farmers defend biofuels as part of EU’s upcoming ‘protein strategy’
By Sarantis Michalopoulos | EURACTIV.com
Speaking at a meeting of EU farm ministers on 19 February 2018, EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan presented the idea of an EU protein strategy.
“Plant proteins are essential for EU farming, since they are a vital component of animal feed, as a source of amino-acids for livestock,” he said.
EU demand amounts to around 45 million tonnes of crude protein per year, of which one third is met by soya, the Irish Commissioner added.
“Soya is the particular challenge when trying to address the EU protein deficit, as the EU self-sufficiency in soya is only 5%,” Hogan explained.
The European Commission launched this week an online stakeholder survey, addressed to experts from the plant protein supply chain, producers and users as well as national authorities.
The question of biofuels
Commenting on the Commission’s initiative, Copa-Cogeca, the association of European farmers and agri-cooperatives, issued a statement saying that “EU biofuel co-products and Processed Animal Proteins are valuable sources of our own protein supply for feed”.
Pekka Pesonen, the secretary-general of Copa-Cogeca, told EURACTIV that from an EU food chain and protein supply point of view, EU crop-based biofuel sectors provide a valuable source of protein-rich cake for feed purposes.
“It is indeed a valuable protein co-product while the energy fraction, plant oil is used to manufacture biodiesel and other biofuels. From year to year, with these products, we decrease our import dependence by 10-15%. Therefore, it is not a minor matter in the protein supply discussion,” Pesonen said.
Similar concerns were recently voiced by Marijana Petir, a Croatian MEP (European People’s Party), who said this should be a powerful argument against phasing out first-generation biofuels.
Not only would this leave farmers more dependent on imports but “in contrast to the feed produced by the EU biofuel industry those imports will be based on genetically modified (GMO) material,” she said.
