China’s ban on all animal protein imports from the USA in the ongoing trade war between the two countries presents an opportunity for European renderers to enter this market, delegates at the recent European Fat Processors and Renderers Association (EFPRA) Congress heard.
The ban over the past two months had affected around 20,000 tonnes/month of shipments, Saria Group Southeast Asia regional director Raphaël Chaise told Oils & Fats International (OFI).
Chaise said China accounted for half of the top 20 feed companies in the world in 2024.The bulk of China’s imported animal proteins - such as meat and bone meal (MBM), fish meal and poultry meal - are used to produce feed for pigs, poultry and aquaculture.
One of the challenges for European renderers trying to export to Asian countries was that their regulations were drawn up in response to the Europe’s bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) crisis in the 1990s and there was great reluctance to adjust them, Chaise said.
Dr Francisco Reviriego Gordejo, head of animal health at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) said that classical BSE associated with contaminated animal feed had not been identified in Europe recently, although atypical BSE not linked to feed contamination was still detected occasionally.
The congress on 4-7 June heard that a key development that would help put European rendering on a level playing field with the rest of the world was an initiative to bring EU rules more in line with World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) standards.
“The most remarkable proposal is that in countries with ‘negligible BSE risk status’, no tissues shall be considered as Specified Risk Material (SRM) any more,” EFPRA president Robert Figgener said.
“By deciding that there is no longer any need to remove SRM, we would finally acknowledge the practical absence of BSE in Europe and, as a consequence, the practical absence of the respective risk. And if there is practically no risk, why would we any longer need the strictest precautions in the world?”
Figgener also called for Europe to allow the use of ruminant processed animal proteins (PAPs) or MBMs in animal feed (except for cattle) and aquaculture, like the rest of the world.
In other news, the World Renderers Organization (WRO) assembly held in conjunction with the EFPRA Congress reported that the first global Code of Practice for Rendering was expected to be published by 2027.
The joint WRO-Food and Argiculture Organization (FAO) guidance would encompass rendering history, sustainability, feed safety, HACCP and regulatory best practices.
WRO technical director Lucas Cypriano said the code of practice would provide guidance to countries in areas such as Africa, Southeast Asia and Central/South America which may not have their own rendering regulations.
