Amsterdam -- European demand for animal feed guaranteed to be free of genetically modified organisms (GMO) has soared this year after supermarkets agreed to pay more to satisfy worried consumers, a certification firm said on Monday.
British supermarket chains such as Tesco and Asda are trailblazers in selling meat raised without GMOs, but the trend is rapidly spreading to the continent.
About four million tonnes of non-biotech soymeal, mostly from Brazil, was guaranteed this year by certification firm Cert ID ( www.cert-id.com ), up from 700,000 tonnes in 2000, President Jochen Koester told Reuters.
The amount could more than double next year if buyers were willing to pay the higher prices for certified material, he added in a telephone interview. "If the demand would be there, I think we can easily crank up the certified amount from Brazil to 10 million tonnes and more annually," Koester said.
Soymeal is a major ingredient in animal feed and increasing soy supplies are from GM crops. Many consumers are worried that GMOs might damage their health or the environment.
GMOs erupted as a major issue in Europe in 1998 and several UK retailers promised to sell non-GM meat. They had failed, however, to realise the complex arrangements needed for certification and balked at paying higher prices. Several UK retailers agreed late last year to pay extra, opening the way for the big increase in supplies of certified non-GMO soymeal, Koester said.
Total demand in the European Union for soymeal certified as non-GMO was unclear, but a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier this year estimated it at 20-25 percent of the roughly 28 million tonnes used annually.
BRAZIL MAJOR SOURCE
Since about 70 percent of the U.S. soybean crop is planted with GM Roundup Ready soybeans, Brazil, which bans GMO crops, has become the major source of non-biotech soymeal.
Some industry players have been wary about how many Brazilian farmers have illegally planted GMO crops to boost yields, especially in the south which borders Argentina, where 90-95 percent of soybeans are from genetic crops. But Koester said the worries were overdone. "There is a big myth about that. All of Brazil has on average contamination from illegal GMOs of about 6-8 percent, and that is mostly in the extreme south where some regions have perhaps up to 35 percent," he said. Even in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, where contamination is highest, Cert ID has granted non-GMO certification to some smaller cooperatives. Most certified output is from the central states.
Brazil is the second biggest soybean producer after the United States, responsible for about a fifth of global output. Last week, a Brazilian trade group estimated production in the 2001/02 season at a record 38.4 million tonnes, up 12.5 percent from 2000/01.
Of the four million tonnes of soymeal certified this year, all was from Brazil except 500,000 tonnes from India, which also bans GMO crops and has the potential to boost its certified supplies of non-GMO soymeal, Koester said. It was unclear how many Brazilian suppliers would be certified in time for the next harvest that begins in February.
Some buyers were still reluctant to pay a premium, so some of this year's four million tonnes from certified farms was sold as standard soymeal. Koester declined to discuss the level of premiums, but the USDA report pegged them at $1.50 to $4.00 per tonne.
DEMAND SPREADS FROM BRITAIN
Demand for more expensive certified soymeal to produce non-GMO meat was highest in Britain, where supermarkets enjoy higher margins than on the continent, but interest was growing elsewhere. "Each country has a different motivation and agenda, but it is going to happen throughout Europe," he said.
A meeting took place on Monday on the GMO issue by a newly formed Quality and Safety group sponsored by Germany's food retailers and producers, Koester said. Denmark, the world's biggest pork exporter, was making major efforts to go in the GM direction.
The increase in interest was especially evident at the recent congress of the International Association of Seed Crushers in Sydney. "Major international suppliers who only six to nine months ago would not want to discuss anything about a GMO, are now either seriously looking at it or already selling it (non-GMO soymeal)," he said.
Cert ID sets up systems that ensure that GMO contamination is not more than 0.1 percent, much less than the one percent level required by the EU to label a product GMO-free. The scheme also provides traceability back to the farm level. It is impossible to guarantee zero contamination without testing every single soybean, Koester said.
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