The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Brendan Smith, has said that Ireland has altered its voting position and will support a number of proposals from the EU Commission aimed at authorising the placing on the market of food, food ingredients and feed containing, consisting of, or produced from genetically modified maize and cotton.
Mr Smith said Ireland will also support EU Commission proposals to introduce a tolerance for the low level presence of, as yet, unauthorised GM varieties in imports of animal feed.
Ireland's support for the Commission’s proposals will be confirmed at a meeting of the EU Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health in Brussels.
Applications for authorisation for the particular GM varieties have been made to the European Commission and have been given a positive opinion by the European Food Safety Authority, a position with which the Food Safety Authority of Ireland concurs.
Minister Smith said that it has been a matter of great concern to Ireland, in recent years, that there has been a severe disruption to trade of animal feed, caused by the delays in the authorisation, by the EU, of GM varieties which have already been approved in the exporting countries.
Over 90% of the protein feed for Ireland's livestock comes from soya and maize by-products imported from North and South America, practically all of which contains GM varieties sown in those countries.
Exporting countries find it increasingly difficult to segregate feed that contains GM varieties that have yet to be authorised and, where segregation is possible, it contributes to increased costs of feed.
The Minister said that imports of maize by-products into Ireland declined by over 75% between 2006 and 2009, before recovering somewhat last year.
The shortfall has had to be met by much more expensive alternative protein ingredients which led to increased prices of animal feed in recent years, thus putting Irish producers at a competitive disadvantage.
Reacting to the decision of the Government to support the EU Commission's move to extend the varieties of novel feed available to producers, IFA President John Bryan said at a time of rising input costs, ‘it is critical that Irish producers are not left at a disadvantage because of delays in authorising feed.’
Mr Bryan said pig producers, in particular, have been under severe pressure as their input costs have risen dramatically in the last six months.
‘They are losing €15 on every pig produced, something which is not sustainable and is placing thousands of jobs at risk.
‘They are finding it very difficult to source credit, and they must have access to the most cost-effective feed supplies to compete in the global market.’
The IFA President said this decision must clear the way to allow increased supplies of soya onto the market, which have been held up for some time.
