Allister raises concern about feedmills
05 February 2009
Traditional Unionist MEP Jim Allister has expressed reservations about a proposed EU Regulation making new stipulations governing the placing on the market and the use of animal feed. It will require additional details as to ingredients in compounds and quantities thereof. Mr Allister's concern is lest a consequence is to threaten the intellectual property rights of the manufacturers and allow others, maybe from cheaper production regions, to steal their recipes.
While the Regulation has been watered down from its first draft, Mr Allister still harbours some concerns.
In the course of the debate in Strasbourg the MEP said:-
"When, in the aftermath of the Dioxin contamination in the Republic of Ireland, which has visited such losses on innocent producers and processors in Northern Ireland, we discuss new measures on the labelling of feedstuffs, the obvious question for me, "would any of these proposals have saved my producers from their present losses?" Sadly, the answer is no. They will, however, impose greater transparency, which of itself is good, but only, of course, for what we feed EU animals, not what has been fed to produce imported meat.
Providing further detail on the precise composition of feedstuff is understandable, but we must not so undermine intellectual property rights as to make them meaningless. Therein, is my residual fear of aspects of these proposals. Compound mixes are trade secrets, built up over years of research and trial. They must be legitimately protected. I trust the 15% margin in description precision will be enough.
I, for one, don't want to see feedmills in my constituency, which have worked hard and invested heavily in producing premium product, being gazumped and their intellectual property rights raided by manufacturers operating in cheaper production areas, either within the EU or outside. I trust this regulation will not be either abused or misused to let that happen. Yes, farmers are entitled to maximum information on compound contents, but within the confines of preserving the viability and future of the mills they buy from."
