Soya imports best solution
Soya imports best solution
IMPORTING more soya meal is the best option for dealing with the shortage of protein caused by the banning of meat and bonemeal in pig and poultry rations throughout the EU at the start of the year.
Presenting a report to this weeks farm council, agriculture commissioner Franz Fischler said that other options, like boosting area aid for oilseeds or pulses, would be too expensive and might lead to problems with the World Trade Organisation.
Raising aid for oilseed rape to k75/t, for example, would cost the EU about k474m/year (£300m), equating to k1270/t (£806/t) in soya meal equivalent. This compared to a current soya import price of just k230/t (£146/t).
The oilseed area would also be limited by the Blair House agreement with the US, leading to scalebacks if this was exceeded.
Similarly, increasing aid rates for peas and beans by k6/t to k78.5/t would have only limited effect, pushing up the sown area by an estimated 10,000-20,000ha. Any further hike in aid rates would be subject to challenge by the WTO. It would also cost the EU an estimated k47m/year (£30m).
Mr Fischler said the EU only needed another 1-1.5m tonnes of soya meal to replace the 2m tonnes of MBM it had lost, adding just 5% to existing imports. This was the cheapest and best solution.
But not all member states were happy. France, Germany and Austria all asked the commission to look at the issue again. Italy added that, although growing EU protein crops was more expensive than importing, most EU products cost more than world market equivalents.