FEFAC published its Feed Sustainability Charter 2030 at the XXIX Congress that highlights five key ambitions of how the European feed industry can contribute to the development of more sustainable livestock and aquaculture value chains. FEFAC president, Asbjørn Børsting, and BFA managing director, Katrien D’hooghe, highlighted how the charter’s actions and commitments are matching the specific EU Green Deal objectives affecting the livestock and aquaculture sectors.
The digitally live-streamed FEFAC XXIX Congress featured a panel discussion between Michael Scannell (European Commission), Pekka Pesonen (Copa-Cogeca), Philippe Weiler (Lidl Belgium), Preben Sunke (Danish Crown) and Jean-François Timmers (WWF) on the Green Deal and market expectations to the European livestock and feed industry. A priority raised by all panelists was the need for the European feed industry and its chain partners to achieve deforestation-free soy supply chains. They also welcomed the ambitions set in the FEFAC Feed Sustainability Charter and encouraged FEFAC and its members to take more targeted commitments.
“It’s a proud today for the European feed industry to set its ambitions for more sustainable feed production for the ten years to come (see the two-page explanation of the charter). It was good to hear from important stakeholders what their concerns and priorities are, and I can assure them that today is the beginning of a journey of measurable progress. We recognize that a deforestation-free soy supply chain is a key priority for our industry and we’re working hard on the upgrading of the Soy Sourcing Guidelines to facilitate a mainstream market solution to achieve that goal,” said Børsting.
BFA president Dirk van Thielen said that “even though we have had to change our original intentions for the joint FEFAC-BFA congress, I am very pleased we managed to organize this digital event with very high-quality speakers, including contributions from Stella Kyriakides (European commissioner Public Health & Food Safety) and Willy Borsus (vice minister-president & minister of Agriculture, Walloon Government). FEFAC and BFA are committed to stepping up the action on bringing down greenhouse gas emissions like methane, upscaling the use of co-products, tackling deforestation and reducing antimicrobial resistance.”
Download the charter here.
