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Grain trade warning as soya meal price surges
By Stephen Cadogan
Animal feed merchants have warned that price levels could become unsustainable for intensive livestock farmers.
In a letter to Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney, the Irish Grain and Feed Association (IGFA) said soya meal prices are now close to €500/tonne, and wheat reached €230/tonne last Friday.IGFA, representing the Irish grain trade, feed manufacturers and shippers, urged Mr Coveney to intervene at EU level, where a two-year delay in authorising MIR162 , a genetically modified (GM) maize, as an animal feedstuff in the EU is blocking maize by-product imports from the US. In April, IGFA alerted the minister and his officials to the expected loss of 20 million tonnes of soya bean due to drought in South America, equivalent to nearly 60% of EU soya meal imports.
IGFA also predicted a smaller EU rapeseed crop, and pointed to a steep increase in price for alternatives such as sunflower and EU-produced distillers grains.
In April, IGFA said soya meal at €400 and cereals at €175 could add about €104 million to Irish livestock farming costs. But prices had since hit new levels due to intense heat-damaging crops in the US, and bad weather in the UK and Ireland has also raised serious concerns about grain yield and quality.
“When we enter the ruminant feed season, the pressure on supplies and prices will be prolonged and sustained,” warned IGFA in this week’s letter to Mr Coveney.
“We are urging the minister to request the commission to expedite the authorisation of MIR162 and to explore all emergency measure available to overcome this latest delay”, said an IGFA spokesperson, who blamed EU bureaucratic delays for the MIR 162 authorisation delay.
In the IGFA letter, Mr Coveney was asked to request EU Health and Consumer Commissioner Dalli to immediately authorise MIR 162.
IGFA warned that international feed suppliers will not supply to EU importers without legal certainty, as animal feed imports which contain more than 0.1% of genetically modified materials which are not approved in the EU are turned back.
The number of genetically modified varieties awaiting approval in the EU regulatory framework, has risen to 69; it was 15 in 2007. There are positive European Food Safety Authority opinions for 15 of those awaiting approval, including MIR 162.