Today’s rejection is in line with the opinion of the relevant Parliamentary Committees and echoes the concerns voiced by affected food and feed supply chain industry sectors. COCERAL, FEDIOL and FEFAC recently issued an Economic Impact Assessment on the Commission’s proposal, finding, inter alia, that substituting GM soy with non-GM soy would lead to an increase in feed costs of around 10% for the livestock sector (i.e. EUR 1.2 bln if four EU countries opted-out or 2.8 bln in the event that all EU countries did so), making livestock production in “opting-out” countries uncompetitive vis-à-vis not only non “opting-out” countries but also third countries, whether on the home or global market.
COCERAL, FEDIOL and FEFAC consider that there is no alternative today but to ensure a correct implementation of the current GM food and feed system, respecting time limits prescribed by the legislation. In order to fully embrace the challenges related to the EU supply of the necessary commodities, it is essential that the understanding about the role of trade and GMOs be enhanced, for which, COCERAL, FEDIOL and FEFAC jointly call for a dedicated, sound, debate tackling the outstanding technical, scientific and economic aspects of biotechnology and GMOs as requested by a number of Members of the European Parliament.