World Grain - November 2009 - 10

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Feed groups warn of looming crisis
in E.U. food, livestock food chain
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - Industry and trade groups FEDIOL, FEFAC and COCERAL with the European farming association COPACOGECA on Oct. 20 increased their warnings over the severity of the
problem of scarce soybean supplies in the E.U after agriculture ministers who meet on Oct. 19 again failed to take responsibility for dealing
effectively with the issue. The groups said that without a clear, effective and urgent response the problem will get far worse.
The looming crisis in the E.U. food and livestock feed
chain, with a total cost impact between €3.5 billion and
€5 billion, remains.
The groups said that ever since minute traces
of U.S.-approved genetically modified (GM) corn
(maize) not yet authorized in the E.U. were discovered
in consignments from the U.S. in June 2009, breaching the E.U.'s policy of zero tolerance, around 180,000 tonnes of
U.S. soy have been denied entry to the E.U. Whatever precautions
are taken, it is not possible to guarantee the absence of minute levels of foreign materials, other than by ceasing the trade altogether,
a problem the E.U.'s own Joint Research Centre has also recently
identified in its report on the GM pipeline.
The groups said that with the current lack of alternatives, and still

no immediate action from the European Commission to propose a
technical solution in the form of a so-called "low-level presence
(LLP) threshold" for food and feed, this situation will leave Europe's
farmers, livestock producers and agricultural trade, as well as food
and feed processing industries, in an extremely precarious position,
keeping the global competitiveness of the E.U. agricultural sector at
risk. The threat of layoffs in the trade and processing industries, of already vulnerable livestock farmers going out of business and of consumers being hit
through knock-on effects on choice, availability and
price all still remain.
The groups said the Farm Council missed an opportunity to speed up the GM authorization process
and provide an urgent solution to the looming crisis.
Yet Member States have again left the decisions on individual product approvals to the Commission. The groups said in regards LLP,
the ball is once again firmly in the court of Commissioner Vassiliou,
who must do what she has consistently resisted doing - come forward urgently with a proposed technical solution on zero tolerance
for food and feed. Without it the situation could prove explosive for
the whole food and feed chain.

Russia must spend $3.4 billion on grain infrastructure

Medvedev

MOSCOW, RUSSIA - ZAO Rusagrotrans
announced on its website on Oct. 15 that it
believes Russia must spend at least 100 billion rubles ($3.4 billion) on building and improving grain silos and ports to meet a government goal for boosting exports, Bloomberg
reported.
The country needs another 18 million
tonnes of capacity to store grain and a further
17 million tonnes at ports to meet the target,

Rusagrotrans said. Russia also needs to build two grain export
terminals in its southern region with annual capacity of 12 million tonnes and a 5-million-tonne terminal in its eastern region,
according to the company.
Bloomberg reported that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
recently ordered the government to devise a plan for increasing
capacity to store and ship grain. Russia aims to boost its annual
grain exports to between 40 million and 50 million tonnes in the
next 10 to 15 years, Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik said
in June.

Ukraine to harvest nearly 9 million tonnes of oilseeds
ISTANBUL, TURKEY - Stepan Kapshuk, the general director of the
association "Ukroliyaprom," told attendees at "Oilseeds & Oils 2009,"
which took place Oct. 12-14 in Istanbul, Turkey, that in 2009 the general production volumes of oilseeds in Ukraine are expected at the
level of nearly 9 million tonnes. This will include 6.1 million tonnes
of sunflower, 1.89 million tonnes of rapeseed and 950,000 tonnes of
soybeans.
Kapshuk said that Ukraine is gradually increasing the sowing areas

of oilseeds. In 2009, Ukrainian agrarians sowed 4.16 million hectares
(ha) of sunflower, 1.4 million ha of rapeseed, 600,000 ha of soybeans.
The general sowing areas totaled over 6 million ha.
Kapshuk noted that over the last five years Ukraine has increased its
oilseed production. He said the world market has seen demand grow
for rapeseed and soybean production. He attributed part of this change
to the general trends of demand in vegetable oils on the world markets
of vegetable oils due to the growth of oils usage in biofuel production.

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World Grain - November 2009

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